Partial opening before Feb-end: Gokhale ROB’s first girder to be in place by Jan 19

Speaking to The Indian Express, P. Velrasu, additional municipal commissioner said, “This process of lowering can be done only when trains are not running below. It is a very slow process because it has to be lowered at four corners in such a way that none of the corners get lowered too much. Therefore, it is done over a period of 10-12 days whenever the trains are stopped below tracks for this purpose.”

Velrasu added that the civic body is working to open one side of the bridge before February end. “The railway blocks for this work and the difficulties mainly decide the closing date,” he told The Indian Express.
Earlier, the BMC had set a mid-February deadline of February 15 for opening one arm of the bridge for vehicular movement.

While the complete lowering is due by January 19, civic reports show that 3.50 m of lowering has been executed until now. For the record, after the girder is pushed entirely, the level of the bridge will be lowered by 7.5 metres to match the level of approach roads that are going to be created.

Following the installation of the girder, the civic body will initiate works on casting of a deck slab amongst other key works.

After the first arm starts catering to traffic, the civic body will launch the second girder in a similar manner with the BMC aiming to make the entire bridge operational by May 2024.

Weighing in at 1300 Metric Tonnes (MT), the OWG — originally a fabricated structure — was constructed in an Ambala workshop and then transported to Mumbai, where it was assembled near the construction site.

Meanwhile, the length of the girder is 90 metres, making it the second longest railway over bridge (ROB) after the Vidyavihar ROB in eastern suburbs, which measures 99.8 metres.

A crucial east-west connector in suburban Mumbai, the Gokhale Bridge in Andheri had shut down in November 2022 owing to its weak structural stability. Thereafter, the old structure was pulled down by the railways in December 2022 while the work order for building the new bridge was issued in January 2023.