Mumbai’s Sion bridge is set to reopen this weekend after being closed for more than two years, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said, restoring a key East-West connection and direct access for commuters travelling to Sion railway station.
The new bridge is being built at a cost of around Rs 60 crore through a joint effort by the BMC and Central Railway. Final works, including painting road markings and installing beams and traffic lights, are currently underway. The bridge will open to vehicular traffic after the traffic police department issues a no-objection certificate.
A civic official said the authorities had fixed October 15 as the deadline for opening the structure. Load testing was completed last week, while only ancillary works remained at the time of the statement. “We have set up an October 15 deadline for opening the bridge, and last week the head concluded our load testing operation. At present last moment ancillary works remain; once they are completed and the traffic police department issues an NOC, this bridge will be opened for vehicular movement,” the official said.
The rebuilt bridge will be 61 metres long, compared with 40 metres for the earlier structure. It will carry four vehicular lanes, doubling the previous capacity of two lanes. A dedicated footpath will connect pedestrians with Sion railway station, while an underpass is planned to facilitate both vehicular and pedestrian movement.
The new structure replaces the Sion Railway Over Bridge, which was built in 1912. The decision to rebuild it followed a structural audit conducted in 2019 that flagged the bridge’s precarious condition. It was subsequently demolished to make way for reconstruction.
The project involved coordination between the civic body and Central Railway because the bridge and its approaches occupy land linked to the railway network. Steel beams for the new bridge were launched in July. Work on the eastern approach began last month after Central Railway handed over a portion of land to the BMC on August 25.
The closure has caused inconvenience in one of Mumbai’s high-footfall areas, with commuters facing disruption while travelling through the Sion connection and towards the railway station. The delay also drew public attention earlier this week, when sports commentator Harsha Bhogle urged the authorities to open the bridge as soon as it was ready rather than wait for an inauguration ceremony.
“I believe the Sion bridge is now ready. If that is indeed so, I hope they open it at the earliest without waiting for availability of people to inaugurate it. It has caused a lot of hardship and the earlier it eases, the better it will be for the public,” Bhogle said in a post on X.
The bridge’s reopening remains subject to completion of the remaining ancillary works and the traffic police NOC. Once those steps are completed, the structure will be opened for vehicular movement, with the October 15 deadline set by the BMC as the immediate milestone.
