BMC awards contract of rly portion of Gokhale Bridge

Mumbai:

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) awarded the tender to construct the railway portion of Gokhale Bridge to A B Infrabuild Limited on Wednesday. This part of the bridge is 90 meters long and 13.5 meters wide. This was one of the three tenders under review by the civic body. The agency had proposed an approximate cost of ₹ 74.5 crore for the construction.

The project will now be awarded to the contractor after the commissioner approves it.

A B Infrabuild’s bid was nearly ₹10 crore less than the amount floated by BMC. The agency is also constructing the road over bridge at Carnac Bunder and Vidyavihar.

Additional commissioner (projects) P Velrasu confirmed the development, adding, “Three qualified bidders were under scrutiny. The bids reviewed by BMC were in the range of ₹74 to ₹83 crore.”

On November 11, the civic body had floated tenders worth ₹84 crore to construct the railway portion of Gokhale Bridge. Work on the other parts of the bridge is already going on.

The civic body received five bids for the project, of which two were disqualified, while the remaining three bids were opened on Wednesday.

Gokhale Bridge was shut on November 7 when BMC’s routine six-month audit revealed that it was in a dilapidated state that warranted closure.

On November 11, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, guardian minister of the western suburbs, conducted a high-level meeting with officials from Western Railway (WR), BMC and Mumbai traffic police, along with the MLA of Andheri west, Ameet Satam. It was then decided that WR would demolish the bridge and BMC would simultaneously construct the new bridge.

Meanwhile, BMC also said that fulfilling the conditions laid down by IIT-B and VJTI on partial reopening of the bridge was not possible and that it was a better idea to keep the bridge shut for faster construction.

A senior official from bridges department said, “One of the conditions laid down by experts was to allow two and three wheelers only on the middle portion of the existing bridge, leaving the sides free. It is not practical as not even a single bike can move from the side. The report also said that traffic should be fluid and not stagnant. This was also not practical as traffic would come to a halt in case of a breakdown.”

The expert committee’s proposal to barricade the roads below the bridge was also not feasible, added the officer, as it meant diverting the traffic going towards Andheri station, which would cause more jams.

Chief engineer of the department, Sanjay Kaundanyapure said, “We can speed up the work of construction if the complete bridge is kept shut. If it is left partially open, we have to be more careful in the construction.”