Mumbai Civic Body Asks Traffic Police To Shut Andheri's Gokhale Bridge

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has asked police to immediately shut Gokhale Bridge, an east-west road connector over Western Railway tracks in Andheri, for vehicular traffic, a senior official said on Thursday.

Incidentally, local Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Ameet Satam had written to the civic body chief Iqbal Singh Chahal on November 1 about the bridge being in a "dangerous" condition.

"We have asked (traffic police) to shut down vehicular traffic on the bridge immediately," confirmed Additional Municipal Commissioner P Velarasu.

Incidentally, a part of the bridge on the tracks had collapsed in 2018, resulting in two deaths.

Officials admitted the closure of the bridge would result in traffic snarls as it is a vital east-west connector, though they added alternate routes would be finalised to provide relief to motorists.

MLA Satam, in his letter, said the work on the BMC portion of the bridge is nearing completion, while the segment above the railway tracks was yet to start.

"As per a report of BMC consultant SCG Consultancy Services, the existing bridge is in extremely dangerous condition and may lead to a mishap any moment and should be immediately closed down," Satam said in the letter.

He also asked Chahal to expedite the process of inviting bids for the work on the segment of the bridge above the railway tracks.

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