Mumbai: BMC to finalise contractor for Gokhale bridge this week

The Gokhale Road bridge was closed on November 7. File pic

The process to reconstruct the Gokhale bridge is gaining pace with the BMC set to award the contract for the reconstruction work this week. The civic body has also decided not to open the bridge to the public, even for light vehicles, as the Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute and IIT-Bombay presented different opinions in their respective reports. Meanwhile, after the Western Railway finalised the contractor to pull down the part of Gokhale bridge over the railway track, the groundwork started on Monday.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation had on November 12 invited a tender of Rs 84.72 crore for the reconstruction of the bridge. Five companies took part in the process. The civic body started scrutinising the bids on November 30 and found three of the companies to be qualified. "The process of scrutinising the documents of all the qualified contractors is going on and the contract will be given this week," said P Velrasu, additional BMC commissioner.

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Speaking on the civic body's decision to not open the bridge for light vehicles, he said there was a difference of opinion in the reports submitted by the VJTI and IIT-Bombay, so the BMC decided against opening the bridge for safety measures. While the VJTI report suggested several repairs before reopening, the IIT-B reports did not suggest any repairs. Both reports were based on visual inspection.