Mumbai: Delisle Road bridge faces slight delay, Gokhale bridge on track

Gokhale Road bridge in Andheri in March. Pic/Nimesh Dave

The reconstruction of two crucial bridges is still underway, with civic officials claiming that the work on Andheri's Gokhale Road bridge is going as planned. However, the complete reopening of Delisle Road bridge in Lower Parel has been pushed further ahead. BMC officials last month said that the work on Delisle Road bridge would be delayed because of lack of dry days and they may open just two lanes of the arm leading towards N M Joshi Marg.

A long dry spell may help speed up work, civic officials said. File Pic/Ashish Raje

However, sources in the civic body are sceptical of maintaining that timeline. Continuous rain has caused obstructions in the construction work and the completion could be pushed to mid-August, the sources said. A long dry spell may help speed up work, they added. Initially, the BMC had planned to fully reopen the bridge by the end July. One arm of the bridge, which was closed to traffic in August 2018, was opened on June 1.

Gokhale bridge on track

According to civic officials, the work on Gokhale Road bridge is on track. "The work of approach roads, etc., is almost complete. The construction of pillars to launch a girder over the railway tracks is going on," said a BMC official.

More than 25 per cent work on the fabrication of the girder at the factory in Ambala is complete, they said. "A girder weighing about 1,250 tons will be important in the construction of this project, and 1,270 metric tons of steel have been purchased for this girder," an official said.

The civic body expects to reopen the bridge by the end of this year. "The work on Gokhale Bridge is going at normal pace. I will visit the project site on Thursday to review the progress," said MLA Amit Satam. Sanjay Kaundanyapure, chief engineer of BMC's bridges department, did not respond to mid-day's request for comment.