'Slower' Parel bridge: BMC pushes deadline for completion to 2023

Only pedestrians can use the Hancock bridge at present

The Lower Parel bridge will now take another year to be completed, with the BMC pushing the deadline to January 2023. Work on the overpass was to get over by end of 2021 or latest by early 2022. The original 98-year-old bridge was pulled down in 2018. The work on another important link, the Hanock bridge, is crawling.

BMC officials said that unless the girders on the bridge are launched by the Western Railway, they cannot do much. The initial plans were to construct the approach roads by the BMC and the bridge over the rail lines by WR simultaneously. But with the girders lying on the approach roads, the corporation is finding it difficult to carry out its share of work, said the officials.

The under-construction Delisle Road bridge in Lower Parel on Wednesday. Pics/Ashish Raje

More popular as the Delisle Road bridge, the structure was an important link connecting Lower Parel, Worli and Prabhadevi in the west to Currey Road, Lalbaug and Byculla in the east.

Sources said the girders will likely be launched by mid-next year and the BMC will then need another seven to eight months to finish the work on the approach roads. This will raise the cost of the Rs 138-crore project by 5-10 per cent, they said.

"The pandemic-induced lockdown wasted a lot of our time because there were no labourers even if the work was allowed. Now that the labourers have returned, we are speeding up the process. Once the railways completes its work, we will easily finish the work on the approach roads. There will be three approaches, two on NM Joshi Marg and one on the Ganpatrao Kadam marg," said a senior BMC official.

Western Railway officials said their work will be completed by April 2022. "The delay was owing to a series of issues and mainly due to shortage of oxygen that is needed for welding and heavy launching work. Soon after that issue was resolved the problem was then about delayed monsoon. The work is getting on track and the first girder is likely to be launched by January 2022 and the second by April 2022," said WR's public relations officer.

BMC struggles with Hancock bridge

The work on the Hancock bridge at Mazgaon continues to be in the doldrums as the BMC is struggling to clear encroachments near the site for the last seven years. The railways has already completed its share of the construction, while the approach road to be built by the BMC is far from completion. Sources said one end of the approach road is likely to be done only by next year.

Rs 138crore
Current estimated cost to build the Lower Parel bridge

2018
Year bridge was pulled down