Mumbai: For now, only light vehicles allowed on Gokhale bridge

Finally one arm of the eastwest connector of Andherirsquos Gopal Krishna Gokhale Bridge was inaugurated on Monday evening as promised A threelane bridge divided into two lanes of 15 lanes each is now open to traffic Vehicles will be allowed to move along one arm from both sides until the full project is completed Currently only light motor vehicles are permitted on the bridgeThe Gokhale bridge is a sixlane structure linking the Western Express Highway in Andheri East to S V Road in Andheri West with a connector to Barfiwala Road in Andheri West This connector is currently being corrected due to a flaw that arose during constructionMangal Prabhat Lodha guardian minister of Mumbai suburban inaugurated the bridge and commended the BMC for completing the task in record time Guardian Minister Deepak Kesarkar MLA Ameet Satam MLA Rutuja Latke Civic Chief I S Chahal and other civic officials were present during the eventRight The threelane side has been divided into 15 lanes each for now PicsNimesh DaveChahal stated that due to revised railway guidelines the bridgersquos height over the railway track had to be increased by two meters As a result the height difference between the Barfiwala connector and the Gokhale bridge has become unequal ldquoExperts from IIT Mumbai and VJTI Institute have been consulted on this matter They will submit a report within 15 daysrdquo he said Chahal added that they are working on constructing a ramp to connect the Barfiwala connector and the Gokhale bridge They will not demolish the Barfiwala connector Chahal assured The full project will be completed before December 31 2024 Chahal claimed in his inauguration speech that the BMC created history during the construction of the bridge ldquoThis is the heaviest girder of 1300 metric tons first launched on a railway track This is one of the busiest railway tracks where trains are running every 34 minutes Also BMC completed one arm of the bridge in a record 14 months after the work order was issued and no other bridge work was completed in this record timerdquo said ChahalTest driveAfter the inauguration the midday team conducted a test drive on the bridge In the east side the connector of Teli Gully to the Gokhale bridge is ready but its landing is partially pending This will give access to vehicles directly from the Western Express Highway in Andheri East to S V Road in Andheri West While landing of Gokhale bridge at Saibaba wadi Andheri E Teli gully is pending BMC officials claim that the landing work is underway and will be completed as soon as the major part of the bridge has been completedOfficials claim that landing work will be completed soon PicNimish DavePolitical mudslinging during inaugurationChahal said that MLA of Andheri West has made major contributions to this project he conducted a number of meetings and visits to which the Andheri East MLA Rutuja Latke of Shiv Sena UBT said although Satam has a major share in the work I also raised questions in the Assembly and visited the spot at least 4 times Amit Satam later slammed UBT leader Aaditya Thackeray without mentioning his name ldquoSome people are saying that the bridge is ready but the chief minister doesnrsquot have time for the inauguration but in fact itrsquos already decided that the guardian minister will inaugurate the bridge Now the situation has changed we have leaders who are working on the ground BMC issued a work order to construct the connector in March 2020 but work started in 2021 Why was there a delay In the last 25 years various issues of Mumbai planning have risen but now our government is solving these issuesrdquo Satam added While Guardian Minister Kesarkar said that work on the Mumbai Coastal Road and the Mumbai TransHarbour project were stuck it is only after our government was formed these projects gained momentum Soon the Coastal Road will also open for trafficBackgroundThe Gokhale Bridge was closed for traffic in November 2022 after an expert panel declared it dilapidated It reopened for traffic after 15 months of closureDemolition works were carried out from December 2022 to March 2023 Reconstruction efforts began on December 2 2023 following a partial collapse of the bridge in 2018Initially BMC was tasked with building only the connector of the bridge within the BMC limit while the railway authority was responsible for the bridge over the railway track Later the full project was handed over to the BMC in 2022A part of the bridge collapsed in 2018 After two years in 2020 BMC issued a work order to construct an approach way to the bridge According to the BMC document the work on the approach road was supposed to be completed in two years until April 2022 However the reconstruction project faced delays due to the pandemic and technical challengesThe bridge was not thrown open to the public till the time of going to press because of the inauguration stage that was set up on the bridge14Time in months it took to complete the bridge work