Bridging the City: 7 new bridges in a year

Over the next one year, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) aims to open as many as seven new bridges at several crucial locations in Mumbai’s island city and suburbs including Sandhurst Road, Mumbai Central, Grant Road, Sion, Vidyavihar and Vikhroli. While the original idea of constructing some of these bridges goes back to the 1990s, it is in the next one year these superstructures are going to get ready.

With larger infrastructure projects like Coastal Road, Metro and Atal Setu already operational in Mumbai, these bridges are set to give the city’s existing infrastructure a major boost in the next one year, making both the commute and lives of citizens easier.

The total cost of these bridges stands at Rs 1,077 crore and out of these seven bridges, two are being built from scratch, while the remaining five were century old structures that were demolished entirely and are being rebuilt.

Next in line–Vikhroli and Carnac bridges

After the Gokhale and Reay Road bridges, the next in line are the Vikhroli and Carnac bridges. While the Vikhroli Bridge is being built from scratch after the idea of building it was conceived 28 years ago in 1997, the new Carnac Bridge is being rebuilt after the century-old superstructure was pulled down in 2022.

“Both these bridges are currently in the final stages of construction. The Vikhroli ROB will be completed by May 31 while we have set June 10 deadline for opening the Carnac Bridge,” Abhijit Bangar, additional municipal commissioner (Projects) told The Indian Express.

The Vikhroli Bridge will connect Eastern Express Highway in the east with Lal Bahadur Shastri (LBS) Marg in the west of Vikhroli at Mumbai’s eastern suburbs. Since there is no direct east-west link there, local residents have to either take the ROB from Ghatkopar or Kanjurmarg for their journey. Once operational, Vikhroli ROB will bring down commute time to seven minutes which today takes 25-30 minutes.

The Vikhroli ROB will also be India’s longest bridge having an open-web-girder system that will run above railway tracks. The total length of the girders will be 100 metres and will be made of stainless steel. The total length of this bridge would be nearly 480 metres and it will have four vehicular lanes and footpaths.

The construction of this bridge began in 2018 and the initial deadline was set for 2020, which was later postponed to 2022. Later the deadline was again postponed to July 2025. Civic officials said the delay was caused due to encroachments that had to be removed.

The initial cost of the project at the time of issuing work order stood at Rs 70 crore. However, owing to multiple delays, the cost now stands at Rs 180 crore.

Meanwhile, the 19th-century old Carnac Bridge was a crucial east-west connector, providing vehicles with direct access to P’D Mello Road. It was demolished in 2022, nearly eight years after being declared ‘unsafe’ in a structural audit. The Carnac Bridge is one of the first bridges in Mumbai built over railway tracks and was 154-years-old when it was pulled down.

The new bridge is being built at a cost of Rs 60 crore and will be a superstructure made of steel that will be 70 metres long and 9.5 metres wide. It will have four vehicular lanes allowing for the smooth flow of traffic, compared to the two-lane traffic in the previous bridge. Besides, the new bridge will be equipped with modern-day signage and lighting. Once operational, the Carnac Bridge is expected to decongest South Mumbai roads significantly.

Even though the initial tenders were floated in 2016, the bridge could be pulled down only six years later. A major challenge faced by the civic authorities was clearing encroachments surrounding the bridge. Consequently, it took nearly five years for the authorities to start the work on the bridge since the date of issuance of work orders.

“Both the bridges had met with several hurdles since they were in the ideation stage. That’s why the project got delayed by many years. At present, these projects are on track and work is going on at full pace. The bridges will bring down the traffic woes in the suburbs and island city significantly,” Bangar said.

Come November, a brand new Belasis Bridge

By November this year, the BMC aims to open the Belasis Bridge for traffic. Speaking to the Express, Bangar said this bridge will be open for traffic by November 30. Located between Mumbai Central and Grant Road at the island city, the Belasis Bridge was pulled down in June last year after a structural audit carried out in 2018 found the bridge to be in a precarious condition.

The new structure will be a cable-stayed bridge that will have a wider carriageway with six vehicular lanes. The overall cost of the bridge has been pegged at Rs 110 crore, with BMC paying Rs 70 crore, while the balance Rs 40 crore is being paid by the railways.

“At present the work is underway. At the start of 2025, we had set the target of opening three bridges before monsoon–Gokhale, Vikhroli and Carnac. The Gokhale has already been opened, and we are also on deadline with Vikhroli and Carnac bridges. Post-monsoon, we targeted the opening of Belasis Bridge which we will be achieving well on time,” Bangar added.

The proposal for demolishing this bridge has been on the pipeline since 2019. However, tenders were floated only in 2023. Civic officials said the delay was caused mainly because of finalising the design. Considering that the bridge runs above railway tracks, both the civic body and railways needed to be on the same page to greenlight the project.

The bridge records an influx of 25,000-30,000 vehicles every day. At present, the bridge is being demolished, and vehicles have to resort to alternative routes, causing massive congestion in the area.

“The earlier deadline for this bridge was set in June 2026. However, at the start of this year, this target was preponed to November 2025,” said an official from the bridges department.
“The new bridge will also free-up space below the structure where an underpass is being built for citizens. This underpass will also become accessible for citizens after the bridge is opened,” the official added.

Sion Bridge–slow progress, but well on deadline…

In August last year, the 112-year-old Sion ROB was shut down for vehicular movement. The authorities had flagged multiple reasons including poor structural stability to be the reason for pulling down the century-old bridge.

While the bridge has remained closed for nearly eight months, the progress of work has been very slow due to relocation of utility lines and power cables. The cost of constructing this bridge is being pegged at Rs 50 crore.

“Even though the work progress has been slow, machineries have been deployed at the spot. The work is underway at full speed and the balance work will not take a very long time, since we aim to speed up the pace of work post-monsoon. Therefore, it’s safe to say that we will be able to open the new bridge for vehicular movement by max June 2026,” the official added.

October 2026: New cable-stayed Mahalaxmi Bridge to be ready

Another key bridge that the BMC aims to open by the second half of 2026 is the Mahalaxmi flyover. Bangar said this bridge will be opened by October 31, next year.

The Mahalaxmi Bridge runs parallel to the railway tracks from the western side of the Mahalaxmi railway station. The proposal for constructing a new Mahalaxmi bridge was cleared by the civic standing committee in 2020. In 2021, the civic authorities removed 16 structures that were obstructing the bridge following which piling work for the new structure began. Since it was a crucial link in south Mumbai, the old structure could be demolished only after the new bridge is ready.

The cost of the new bridge has been pegged at Rs 400 crore which will be a cable stayed ROB which will originate from Keshav Rao Khadye Marg near the western side of the Mahalaxmi station and traverse eastwards above the railway tracks and the drop of the flyover will happen at Saat Raasta. This ROB will be 803 metres long with four vehicular lengths–having a width of 23 metres, while the height from the ground will be 63 metres.

“In order to support the cable stayed super structure, a 78-metre-high pylon will be set up. This process will take approximately 200 days. Besides this, the construction of the spans will take 250 days, and these will be carried out in different phases. The entire work will go parallel. Therefore, we have kept an October 31, 2026, deadline for opening this bridge,” an official said.

Despite legal hurdles, Vidyavihar and Hancock bridges may be ready next year

Alongside these five bridges, there are two other key connectors whose future is far from being decided by the civic authorities. While the construction of these bridges had commenced long back, issues like rehabilitation of project-affected parties (PAP) and several commercial and residential structures coming in the way have posed to be major roadblocks for the completion of these two projects.

The Vidyavihar and Hancock bridges have been on the pipeline for nearly a decade now. While construction work in the two projects have been partially completed, the authorities are hopeful that they will be fully ready by next year, even though uncertainty continues to prevail.
The cost of the Vidyavihar ROB stands at Rs 178 crore, while the cost of Hancock bridge stands at Rs 90 crore as of today.

“The civil work that is remaining for the completion of these two bridges will take hardly four months to get completed. The real issue is that with Hancock Bridge, there is a stay from the court before we can go ahead with the work, while for the Vidyavihar ROB, there are issues related to rehabilitation of PAPs,” Bangar told the Indian Express.

The Vidyavihar ROB was conceptualised 34 years ago in 1991 as an east-west missing link project that would cut down travel time by a significant margin. However, tendering of the project could begin only by 2016, while construction work for the same began by 2018. The deadline for completion was initially set up for 2022. However, it got pushed multiple times. Civic authorities said that as many as 60 structures including residential and commercial units as well as a religious site were coming in the way of the alignment of the new bridge.

Meanwhile, the original Hancock bridge, which was close to 100 years old, was pulled down in 2018, after a structural audit found the old superstructure to be in a dilapidated state. The bridge was, however, opened partially in 2024. Several commercial and residential buildings were falling in line with the new structure and the occupants of these structures approached the court which issued a stay on the project, as a result of which the entire bridge couldn’t be opened.

“In the case of Vidyavihar ROB, the work on the eastern side is complete and, in the west, there are multiple obstructions coming in. Had there been no delays, we could have opened it before monsoon this year. But these rehabilitation issues are unpredictable, and we are not in a position to give a concrete deadline yet. However, we will try to open it by May 2026, if things start falling into place,” Bangar said.

The case of Hancock is more complicated as there is a stay on the project. We are working towards vacating the stay. If we succeed in that by this year, then this bridge may also be ready by next year,” he added.