Some commuters and Parel homeowners will have to face difficulties when the major Elphinstone road over bridge is closed later this month. On the other hand,
Mumbai residents are looking forward to the opening of five additional important city bridges this year - the Vikhroli, Reay Road, Byculla, Gokhale, and Carnac bridges.
Connecting the Byculla East region, the Reay Road bridge over the harbour line, goes through the Reay Road station and ends at Mahul Road and the Eastern Freeway. Following an audit by the IIT that determined it to be unsafe, the authorities dismantled it.
The Maharashtra Rail Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (MRIDC or MahaRail) is constructing the new, cutting-edge bridge, which features a cable-stayed design similar to the Bandra Worli Sea Link, as part of the reconstruction of eleven road overbridges and one road underbridge in Mumbai and the surrounding areas.
Since construction began in February 2022 and was finished in February 2024, this bridge is among the city's fastest-built. The cost of constructing this bridge is INR 273 crore. This new bridge has six lanes, two ramps and is 385 meters long.
The 160-year-old Carnac Bunder bridge, which connects the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and the Masjid Bunder railway station, was closed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in September 2022 after the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay deemed it dangerous. Two months later, the bridge was demolished. The following year, the bridge's construction got under way.
In October 2024, the BMC and Railways launched the bridge's first girder across railway lines, and in January 2025, the second girder. Approaches still need to be worked on, though. By the end of this year, the bridge should be operational. Cost of constructing it was INR 53 crore. The length of the grinder is 70 meters and the width is 9.50 meters. The grinder weighs 550 metric tonnes.
Issues with land acquisition and the rehabilitation of project participants have caused delays with this structure. To the ire of angry residents, the level crossing gate was shut down in 2011, cutting off travel from east to west. Girders above railway lines were installed in April 2024, but approach work is still ongoing and will take many more months to finish. To construct this bridge the authorities invested INR 88.75 crore.
On November 7, 2022, this vital east-west link was deemed hazardous and closed to transportation. The bridge was initially scheduled to be finished by May 2023, however within the last two years, there have been several delays. On February 26, 2024, the BMC began construction of the bridge's two lanes, subject to height constraints. The bridge is now only accessible by light vehicles, such as cars and two-wheelers; buses have not been allowed to use it. By April 2025, the construction should be finished. The authorities invested INR 150 crores in this project.
It is anticipated that the new Byculla bridge will be finished by October 2025. In the first phase, traffic will continue to flow on the current structure while a cable-stayed structure is constructed parallel to the current road overbridge without interfering with it. After rerouting traffic on the recently built parallel bridge, the current road bridge will be rebuilt at the same spot in the second stage. On December 22, 2021, work on this cable-stayed bridge got underway. Cost of this bridge is INR 287 crore.
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