Mumbai: Shifting of Gokhale bridge’s 90-m girder to begin on Sunday

The Gokhale bridge girder, which will be shifted 14 metres north of its current location. Pic/Sameer Markande

The shifting of the 90-metre Gokhale bridge girder will start on Sunday. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) launched the beam on the night of December 2 at the south side of the site but it needs to be moved 14 metres north where pillars are ready.

While Additional Municipal Commissioner P Velrasu told mid-day the shifting work would commence on Sunday, an official involved in the project said that shifting the girder would take three days. After this is done, the beam will be lowered, a process that will take 11 to 15 days. Every night, the girder will be brought down by at least 550 millimetres, according to the official.

"Since we have simultaneously completed other related work, we are waiting for the Railway's approval to start shifting the girder. Shifting and lowering will commence as per the availability of blocks," said the official.

"The girder was launched 7.5 metres above the pillars. It needs to be on the pillar level. This is the first time a girder was launched in such a manner," said the official.

He added, "As pillars had already been built on the north side, we couldn't launch the girder there so we did it on the south side and are now shifting it."

Two lanes of Gokhale bridge will be opened by mid-February 2024 while the entire structure will be thrown open to the public by May.

The crucial east-west connector was closed on November 7, 2022. Part of the bridge had collapsed in 2018. Two years later, the BMC issued an order that an approach way to the bridge be constructed.

This work was supposed to be completed by April 2022 but it got delayed due to the pandemic and various technical reasons. After the bridge was closed, it was decided that the BMC would construct the entire connector.

Dec 2
Day girder was launched