Mumbai’s Gopal Krishna Gokhale Bridge in Andheri, a crucial east-west connector that had been partially shut for nearly two and a half years, reopened fully on May 11, 2025. With its southern arm finally operational, traffic between Andheri East and West is expected to ease significantly.
The Gokhale Bridge reopening is part of a wider pattern—Mumbai’s old, often crumbling legacy bridges are being replaced or reconstructed to meet today’s engineering, traffic, and safety demands. The Delisle Road Bridge in Lower Parel, which reopened in phases after a prolonged closure since 2018, is one such example. Another is the Carnac Bridge near CST, which was declared unsafe and demolished after decades of service, causing major diversions and delays in the city’s oldest business district. The Reay Road Bridge is also undergoing reconstruction.
The larger picture here is this: Mumbai is quietly transitioning its structural skeleton—particularly bridges that were built during the British era and for a different scale of urban life. Most of these bridges were not designed to handle the current vehicular load or today’s urban density. As their closures often cause major traffic disruptions, upgrading these bridges is inevitable.
This wave of redevelopment might seem like a mixed bag—necessary and overdue, but often marred by execution gaps. The Gokhale Bridge reconstruction, for instance, suffered from a 1.5-metre misalignment with the CD Barfiwala flyover—something that should have been anticipated in the planning stage. These kinds of oversights can slow down the projects and erode public trust. Hence, the effort to reimagine these connectors is essential.
Bridges are more than physical structures; they shape commuting patterns, residential preferences, and even commercial property values. Areas cut off by infrastructure closures—like the Andheri stretch during the Gokhale shutdown—often see commercial footfall and rental prices drop.
The story of Mumbai’s bridges is also a story of urban memory. Many of these structures date back over a century. Their demolition and replacement reflect not only technological progress but also a shift in how the city thinks about public infrastructure—less as a static asset and more as a dynamic, evolving necessity.
Modern bridges should not just fill a functional gap-they must serve a city in motion. The Gokhale Bridge reopening is a step in that direction. The rest of Mumbai now waits for its bridges—new ones that reflect not just better engineering but also better city-building.
