Mumbai: Shutdown of Sion Bridge Today, Demolition and Reconstruction to Affect Traffic for 2 Years

Mumbai: A British-era Road Over Bridge (ROB) in Sion will be shut down starting today, with a complete demolition of the bridge being carried out from this Saturday.

The Central Railway (CR) will take at least 6 months to demolish the Sion overbridge, and 9 major roads and 24 minor ones will be affected. It will take another 18 months to reconstruct the old bridge to make way for two railway lines for local trains.

Mumbai traffic to be affected for 2 years in Sion-Kurla

Traffic will be diverted on these roads from January 20, and may lead to chaos in the already crowded city streets. The age-old Sion overbridge connects Mumbai’s Eastern Express Highway to LBS Road in Kurla and also the corporate hub of Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC). Over 1.5 lakh vehicles pass through the Sion Over Bridge every day.

The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) declared that the Sion bridge shutdown from January 20 will impact 24 major routes in the city. BEST will divert over 200 buses or cancel certain routes. 

Mumbai has a plethora of roads, bridges and overbridges from the British era. The city has seen some bridge collapses, also around some local train stations, which had not been repaired for decades.

Sion Over Bridge to make way for two railway lines

The Sion Road Over Bridge (ROB) will be reconstructed by the CR to create space for laying of the fifth and sixth lines of the local train between the stations of Parel and Kurla in central Mumbai.

After the reconstruction, the span of the bridge will increase to 49m from 30m, with the width remaining the same at 29m.