Speaking at the newly constructed Gopal Krishna Gokhale Bridge's inauguration in Andheri, Mumbai's municipal commissioner and state appointed administrator, Iqbal Singh Chahal said the entire structure as well as the adjoining CD Barfiwala Bridge will be made operational by December 2024, directly connecting Andheri and Juhu. Guardian ministers Mangal Prabhat Lodha and Deepak Kesarkar were present at the event with civic officials and local elected representatives. "We have achieved the target of completing the first phase of this bridge within a record 14-month timeline. I assure the remaining two lanes of this bridge will be completed by December 31, 2024 along with the two lanes of Barfiwalla Flyover. By the end of 2024, all six lanes will be operational," Chahal said. On Monday, the BMC opened the northern arm of Gokhale Bridge for light motor vehicles. Civic officials said vehicles will be allowed to ply from 7 am Tuesday. This arm has two lanes to allow traffic from both sides. The girder for the second arm is yet to be launched. Since the past one week, a group of local residents and activists blamed the BMC for mismatched road levels between the Gokhale and Barfiwalla bridges since the new bridge has been construction an elevated height of two metres. Chahal said that the guideline to increase the height of Gokhale Bridge came from the Union ministry. "Since the Union ministry has undertaken upgrading railway lines across India, it's latest set of guidelines say that any new railway over bridge (ROB) should be created at an additional height of two metres. The Barfiwalla Flyover was constructed before Gokhale Bridge therefore, there is a height mismatch and I assure that the two bridges will be merged by the year end and no demolition work will be carried out for this," Chahal said. During the inauguration ceremony, Rutuja Latke, Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA from Andheri (East), in her speech said, "While I congratulate the BMC for finishing this bridge in a record time, one also needs to keep in mind that the target of installing the remaining girder should be achieved within the stipulated time. The commissioner promised to launch the remaining girder by December this year. It took 14 months to launch one girder and the same procedure will be followed for launching the second girder." Ameet Satam, local BJP MLA from Andheri said, "A portion of Gokhale Bridge collapsed in July 2018, however, the work order for reconstructing this part was issued only in 2020 and the work started on ground in November 2021. We (BJP) were not in power in the government during that time we are not in a majority in the BMC. So questions pertaining to the delay of any project should be asked to someone else and not members of the ruling government." A crucial east-west connector of Andheri in the western suburbs, the Gokhale Bridge was shut down in November 2022, after authorities cited the structure's weak structural stability. The old structure was demolished by the Railways in December last year and the work order to build the new bridge was issued in January 2023. Built at a cost of Rs 100 crore, the Gokhale Bridge is 90 metres long and each steel girder weighs up to 1,300 metric tonne. This is also the second longest ROB after the Vidyavihar ROB in the eastern suburbs, which measures 99.8 metres. The old Gokhale bridge structure, which was pulled down last year, measured 77 metres, while the recently launched Delisle bridge is 72 metres. Since the bridge passes above the Railway tracks, the demolition work was carried out by the Western Railways, while the new bridge's construction was done by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
