The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has finally appointed a contractor to build two rail overbridges (ROBs) at Mahalaxmi that will take the load off the existing bridge. A proposal to build the two bridges — in the planning stage for five years — at a cost of around ₹745 crore will be placed before the BMC standing committee this week.
The existing ROB at Mahalaxmi station is almost 100 years old and dilapidated. The Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, had recommended reducing its load.
Since the BMC cannot pull the bridge down without an alternative, it undertook repairs and planned two new ROBs at Mahalaxmi station: one from Dr. E. Moses Road (Worli Naka) to Saat Rasta and another from Saat Rasta to Keshavrao Khadye Marg (towards Haji Ali). Together, they are supposed to ease traffic at Saat Rasta junction and Mahalaxmi station.
The second ROB will be a cable-stayed bridge — touted as the city’s first — as it will pass over railway tracks and cannot have pillars. Western Railway (WR) wanted the BMC to construct the entire bridge while the civic body insisted WR construct the portion in its jurisdiction. Now, the BMC will be constructing the entire stretch with relevant relevant permissions from WR and an overseeing consultant.
“As the existing ROB is the only link between Worli and the Tardeo/Haji Ali area [and has] completed its design life, it is necessary to connect the missing links of Dr. E. Moses Road and Keshavrao Khadye Marg to have better connectivity to Saat Rasta, Byculla area [to the east of the tracks] and Tardeo area on the west side,” the tender document read.
The ROB on Dr. E. Moses Road will be 639 metres long, while the one on Khadye Marg will be 803 metres long, and both will have four lanes. The latter will be cable-stayed at a height of 62 metre. Together, they will cost ₹745 crore, including consultants’ fees, and will take at least three years to be built. The ROBs are recommended in the Comprehensive Mobility Plan and proposed in the Development Plan 2034 as well.
Additional municipal commissioner Vijay Singhal said, “There was a long-pending demand to construct these bridges. We have finally completed the entire tendering process in four months and if the standing committee approves it, bhoomipujan can be done on January 26. Once these bridges are constructed, we will consider making the existing Mahalaxmi bridge a pedestrian-only zone.”
Sources said Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will perform the bhoomipujan on Republic Day.
