Nahur bridge in Mumbai nearing completion next month

Phase 1 of the Nahur bridge project is nearly finished and is set to open in a month. This bridge is a key part of the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road (GMLR). Workers have added two new sections, or "arms," to the existing bridge. Each arm will help carry traffic in opposite directions. The east-west arm opened on February 27. The other arm is expected to open in April. The Nahur bridge connects neighborhoods like Nahur, Mulund, and Bhandup, linking the Eastern Express Highway to LBS Marg. The need for improvements arose as traffic increased with the GMLR project. Phase 1 began in 2019 but faced delays due to COVID-19. Construction picked up in 2022. By February 2023, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) reported that the project was 70% complete. The cost for Phase 1 is about ₹ 68.25 crore, while Phase 2 is estimated at ₹ 23.60 crore. Some residents are concerned the new bridge may not fully solve traffic issues. They worry it could create even more congestion due to increased traffic from the GMLR. One resident, Bharat Soni, expressed that initial complaints about quality have emerged regarding the bridge that opened in February. He believes the BMC should have first widened the GMLR to prevent bottlenecks. Phase 2 will involve replacing the old central bridge with a new one, combining it with the two new arms. However, no start date has been announced for this phase. The BMC is waiting for the Central Railway to demolish the railway portion of the bridge before beginning work.