On a November night in 2015, hundreds of workers sweated it out for 18 hours to pull down a 136-year-old structure — the Hancock Bridge, one of Mumbai’s oldest infrastructure icons. It was dismantled brick by brick, along with its steel spans, after a structural audit by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) deemed it unfit.
The bridge was named after Colonel HF Hancock, a British Army civil engineer and president of the Bombay Municipal Corporation in the 1870s. During his tenure, Hancock played a key role in the city’s town planning and the construction of roads and bridges. However, 10 years after its demolition, the bridge remains only half done.
Originally, the BMC planned a new, wider bridge to accommodate the increasing vehicular density. The 65-metre structure over the railway tracks at Sandhurst Road earlier had four lanes; currently, only two are operational, with the remaining portion yet to be built.
Civic officials told The Indian Express that a fresh plan has been proposed to complete the project, with costs rising by 138 per cent over the past decade.
A bridge that linked two of the seven islands
Constructed in 1897, the Hancock Bridge connected the erstwhile Bombay island with Mazgaon. Mumbai researcher Vinayak Talwar, who conducts heritage walks for Khaki Tours, said the bridge marked the northwest tip of Bombay island, with Mazgaon to the north.
“The two islands were separated by a creek known as Umerkhadi. When the seven islands were joined, the filling of this creek was then known to be one of the earliest reclamation projects for making way for the railway tracks that were laid by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway (GIPR). After the railway tracks were laid, this bridge was constructed to facilitate the east-west commute between Mazgaon and present-day Dongri,” Talwar told Express.
Records show that the Mazgaon railway station was built in 1893, followed by the bridge four years later. To its east lies Mazgaon Dock, which functioned as a bunder between the 17th and 19th centuries before evolving into a port.
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Talwar noted that the bridge was a crucial east-west link and once carried tram lines, including the Mazgaon–Gowalia Tank route. It was widened in 1932 to handle increasing traffic and later served only motor vehicles after trams were discontinued.
“The bridge was a key east-west link of South Mumbai, and it had two plaques giving out information about its origin and construction details. When it was being demolished in 2015, those plaques got lost, and to date, nobody could find them,” he added.
Decade-long reconstruction project
In November 2015, the BMC, along with Central Railways, dismantled the bridge to build a new one, initially budgeting Rs 42 crore. The contract was first awarded to a blacklisted firm, prompting a legal challenge. In 2016, the Bombay High Court ordered the BMC to scrap the work order, and a new contractor was appointed in 2018, pushing the cost to Rs 51.7 crore.
By 2022, only half the bridge had been completed, leaving the rest suspended on pillars without a landing ramp. Currently, it carries two lanes of east-west traffic, compared to four earlier, even though the plan was to expand capacity.
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The project has been raised four times in the state assembly. Congress MLA Amin Patel criticised the delay, saying resources spent so far have yielded little.
“The fact that the bridge is only halfway operational undermines the fact that it was dismantled in the first place. The earlier structure had four lanes, while today it only has two lanes. Therefore, the place continues to be a vehicular bottleneck. The BMC has come up with several plans in the past 10 years, but the issue stays unresolved, while the overall cost escalates,” Patel told Express.
Officials cited land acquisition hurdles as the main cause of delay, with 34 residential and commercial structures obstructing alignment, including five MHADA-owned buildings. After work began in 2018, project-affected persons approached the High Court, which stayed construction until rehabilitation was ensured. With no immediate rehabilitation plan from BMC and MHADA, work stalled for two years.
Following a design change, half the bridge was completed in 2022 at Rs 59.66 crore.
What lies ahead
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Civic officials said a new proposal has been prepared to complete the remaining portion at an additional cost of Rs 40.3 crore. Tender drafting is underway and expected to be floated later this year.
“The process of rehabilitation of the PAPs has been taken up by the MHADA, and the remaining 29 structures that are obstructing the alignment are being removed by the local ward officials. Once these structures are removed, the timeline for completion will be fixed,” a civic official said.
