Mumbai: After 4 years of back and forth, reconstruction of Bandra skywalk stopped

The Bandra skywalk, closed in 2019, on April 26, 2022. File pic/Sameer Markande

While the Himalaya foot overbridge (FOB) at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) was finally reopened four years after its collapse, work on the Bandra station skywalk has not even started.'

After four years of back and forth, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) stopped the reconstruction process and started the process of carrying out a feasibility study of the extension of the Bandra skywalk to the MHADA office and retendering the work.

The rebuilt Himalaya FOB was opened to the public in late March. Seven people died on March 14, 2019, after the original bridge collapsed. The Bandra skywalk was closed by the BMC after a structural audit report deemed it dilapidated in 2019. Since then, the BMC has come up with numerous plans to get the structure up again but has failed to do so. The work has been delayed for various reasons, compelling pedestrians to walk on the uneven footpath. The BMC issued a work order in 2022 but the design had to be changed to strengthen the skywalk as it is close to the creek and the cost increased by 30 per cent. Senior officials were granted permission to pay the higher amount. "But there is a petition in the high court to extend the skywalk to the MHADA office as it was earlier. If we try to include the work in the current work contract, the cost will again rise by 60 to 70 per cent. So the BMC decided to do a feasibility study on the extension and float a new tender altogether," said a BMC official.

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The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) cut part of the FOB to construct a flyover on the highway. "It is difficult to construct a FOB over the flyover. But we need to do a proper study before filing a reply to the court. We will decide afterwards how to go about the new tender," added the official.
The skywalk, with one arm going to Kalanagar and another going to Bandra court via Anant Kanekar Marg (station road), was built in 2008 by the MMRDA, which handed it over to the BMC. The civic body decided to construct only one arm, from the railway station to the court over Anant Kanekar Marg, at the cost of Rs 19 crore and issued a work order in this regard in February 2022. Construction work was to be completed within 18 months, including the monsoon ones.

2008
Year the Bandra skywalk was built