Mumbai's Gokhale Bridge To Be Partially Opened On Feb 26, CM Shinde To Officiate Ceremony

After being closed for fifteen months, Gopal Krishna Gokhale Bridge in Mumbai is set to reopen for vehicular movement starting February 26.

P Velrasu, Additional Municipal Commissioner (Projects) at BMC, has confirmed this news, saying that the bridge will be accessible to motorists from 6 pm onwards on Monday.

“Even though one girder is being made operational first, it will allow traffic movement from both directions. The assembling work of the second girder is already underway and we are expecting to launch it within the middle of the monsoon,” Velrasu told The Indian Express on Sunday.

The bridge will feature two arms, each accommodating two lanes for vehicular traffic. Initially, only one arm will be accessible for vehicles, as the launch of the girder for the second arm is pending.

Officials at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation officials clarified that the single operational arm will serve vehicular movement from both sides, with two lanes on this girder being functional.

The initial girder of this bridge was launched in the first week of December last year, and subsequent to that, road surfacing activities commenced. With a length of 90 meters, this girder ranks as the second longest railway over bridge (ROB), following the Vidyavihar ROB in the eastern suburbs, which measures 99.8 meters. The weight of the Overhead Water Girder (OWG) is approximately 1,300 metric tonnes.

According to a report in Hindustan Times, officials from the BMC’s bridges department have been instructed to prepare the bridge for inauguration. Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde is expected to officiate the ceremony.

On Sunday, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray took to social media platform X, questioning why Mumbaikars should wait until tomorrow when the work was completed five days ago.

“Apparently now, after we raising the issue of the delayed inauguration of the delayed and embarrassingly half made Gokhale Bridge, it is decided that the guardian minister will inaugurate it tomorrow at 5:30 pm. I’m glad that our pressure worked, but the question is, why should Mumbaikars wait till tomorrow when the work was done 5 days ago?,” Thackeray wrote.

The pedestrian segment of Gokhale Bridge collapsed on July 3, 2018, due to corrosion and overload resulting from the use of cables and paver blocks. It has remained closed since November 3, 2022.