Delisle Rd bridge may not be fully ready in July

The BMC expected to fully reopen Delisle Road in July. File Pic/Ashish Raje

The civic body, which was already facing backlash for not building footpaths on the recently opened arm of the Delisle Road bridge, has another bad news. The second arm, which will land on N M Joshi Marg, may not be ready in July like the BMC had planned.

The BMC opened one arm of the bridge on June 1, and was expecting to open the second one by the end of July. But, officials are finding it difficult to meet this target due to rains. "We had set this deadline because we thought we would get a long dry spell in June," said an official.

The BMC plans to install the girder for the second arm of the Delisle Road bridge on June 20. "The girder will be launched on two spans of the BMC's approach road, followed by shuttering and reinforcement work. A long dry spell is not required to launch a girder," the official added. The plan was to complete this work in June.

The last phase in the project was concreting work, which cannot be done during a wet spell, the official said, adding that initially, the plan was to complete this work in the first week of July.

Now, the chances of staying on schedule seem bleak, hence the BMC is looking at opening just two of the four lanes of the second arm by the end of July. But, Deputy Municipal Commissioner Ulhas Mahale said the bridge work will "most probably be complete by July end".

The BMC closed the bridge to traffic in August 2018 and began reconstruction work in 2020. The first deadline for completion of the R138-crore project was May 2022, but it was extended to December 2023 and then May 2023. It was partially opened on June 1.