Andheri's Gokhale bridge closure: Locals fume as woes rise

MUMBAI: The cases of public transport-related commuting woes have been rising due to delayed journeys, refusals and surge pricing ever since the Gokhale bridge in Andheri was closed for repairs.

The BEST buses take at least half-an-hour to cross from Andheri East to West, leaving commuters fuming. "The buses go through New Nagardas Road and via Andheri subway to Andheri West. There are bottlenecks here due to recent diversions and traffic jams take a long time to clear," recalled a commuter.

Citizens are fed up with refusals by auto drivers who not just avoid trips connecting East-West but also refuse to go from Andheri station West to Vile Parle, fearing jams."After autos refuse to ply, we go to the bus stops, but there are long queues while aggregator cabs also keep refusing rides online," said Mihir Kulkarni, a local resident.

Andheri resident Dhaval Shah of Lokhandwala Oshiwara Citizen's Association (LOCA), said: "The diversion is frustrating as it also leads to loss of productive man hours and energy. Everyone, from a school student to a working executive, has been badly hit due to the bridge closure. The children suffer as their schoold bus takes them home late; they often miss their tuition classes and extra-curricular activities. At the same time, the working class has to spend over an hour just to cross from Andheri East to West and vice-versa."

Residents also prefer using Metro services to travel from Andheri West to East to cut down travel time, and this has increased Metro ridership at Andheri West stations such as Versova, D N Nagar and Azad Nagar by at least 15%, an official from Mumbai Metro One said. "If one books an aggregator cab for the airport, the fare reflected on the app is a surge price which takes into account the traffic jams on diverted routes," Shah said, adding that the work on the bridge should be expedited.

The alternate routes for traffic after the bridge closure are -- Khar Subway, Milan Subway flyover bridge, Captain Gore flyover Bridge (Parle Bridge), Andheri Subway, Balasaheb Thackeray flyover bridge (Jogeshwari) and Mrinal Tai Gore flyover bridge.


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