Mumbai is one of the biggest and most popular cities in India and its often referred to as the ‘city that never sleeps’. A major milestone in public transport, the Gopal Krishna Gokhale Bridge will open for public from early next year. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has launched the first girder of the Gopal Krishna Gokhale Bridge in Andheri, Mumbai during the night between Saturday and Sunday. The bridge will partly open in February this year and it will become fully operational by May next year.
The Gopal Krishna Gokhale Bridge, a primary east-west link in the western sub-urban area, which was dismantled earlier, will now open for the public again in February next year. The bridge will partly be opened for the public on February 15, 2024 and will become fully operational in May 2024. The first girder of this bridge was launched on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday.
The trial run for the Open Web Girder (OWG) launch was held on December 1, 2023 when it was pushed by four metres towards the railway tracks. During this final launch, the complete steel structure was slided towards the railway tracks and the superstructure of steel was aligned on the piers erected on the ground.
According to a civic official, “The Western Railway has approved a traffic block of 11 days for four hours during the night. And throughout this period the girder will be brought down, on an average of 550 milimetres in three hours, every night.”
The Gopal Krishna Gokhale Bridge was actually dismantled in phases, part by part between December 2022 and March 2023.