Three bridges. One afternoon. And a city's chronic east-west gridlock firmly in the crosshairs. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday, 22 October 2026, virtually inaugurated three major infrastructure projects from his official Varsha residence in Mumbai — a railway overbridge at Vidyavihar, a flyover at Sion railway station, and an elevated road under the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road (GMLR) project at Goregaon East — all executed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Speaking at the online inauguration, CM Fadnavis said infrastructure is being built at speed across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. '59 मिनिटांत मुंबई' ('Mumbai in 59 minutes') — the government's headline vision for rapid regional access — is, he said, now within sight. 'Multimodal connectivity work underway in the MMR will dramatically improve the ease of living for citizens alongside faster travel,' he added.

Vidyavihar bridge cuts a 30-minute trip to 10

The Vidyavihar railway overbridge is the most immediately felt win for daily commuters. Built by BMC, it directly links Ramchandra Chemburkar Marg (east) with Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg (west) across the Vidyavihar railway station. Until now, crossing between these two sides took roughly 30 minutes; it will now take 10. A secondary gain: pressure on the heavily loaded flyover near Ghatkopar station is expected to ease. The bridge was built in two phases. Phase 1 involved utility relocation inside railway limits and the installation of two spans totalling 99.34 metres. Phase 2 added 500 metres of service roads on both the east and west sides. The finished structure is 600 metres long and between 15.50 and 17.50 metres wide.

Sion's 112-year-old bridge replaced — and Central Railway unlocked

The old Sion railway bridge was a colonial-era structure — 112 years old and officially deemed unsafe. Its demolition and reconstruction was not merely a safety call; it was a strategic prerequisite. CM Fadnavis noted the new bridge will enable Central Railway to begin work on the fifth and sixth railway lines between CSMT and Kurla — an expansion that, once complete, will allow more local and long-distance trains to run with greater frequency. The new bridge connects Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marg and the Eastern Express Highway on one side to Dharavi, Bandra, and BKC on the other — a vital east-west link for one of the city's most congested corridors. The rail span cost ₹33.51 crore and the approach roads cost ₹31.62 crore. Crucially, the work was completed approximately four months ahead of schedule. The bridge spans 54.5 metres in length and 26 metres in width, supported by two semi-through steel girders weighing 496 tonnes. Approach roads extend 65 metres toward Dr. Ambedkar Marg, 110 metres toward Dharavi, and 97 metres toward LBS Marg. Pedestrian underpasses have been built on LBS Marg and Sant Rohidas Marg.

Goregaon East flyover: unlocking the GMLR corridor

The third project — an elevated road running from Ratnagiri Hotel Junction to Santosh Nagar near Chitranagari in Goregaon East — is a component of the larger Goregaon-Mulund Link Road project, the most ambitious east-west artery in northern Mumbai. The 1.26-kilometre, six-lane flyover uses precast box concrete segments, with curved steel spans between piers P-7 and P-11 accommodating a complex multi-directional geometry. The flyover targets the chronic bottleneck at Ratnagiri Hotel Junction and surrounding intersections on A.K. Vaidya Marg and Film City Road. When the full GMLR corridor is operational, it will also provide fast access to the proposed twin underground tunnels beneath Sanjay Gandhi National Park — the link that will finally stitch Mumbai's eastern and western suburbs together at a landscape scale.

The '59-minute Mumbai' vision and what comes next

All three projects fit a deliberate pattern. BMC is simultaneously upgrading concrete roads, pressing forward on the Coastal Road, and advancing metro corridors — building the multimodal mesh that the Maharashtra government has branded as its signature infrastructure legacy for the MMR. CM Fadnavis said seamless north-south and east-west connectivity is the governing principle, and these three bridges are nodes in that larger grid. The event was attended by Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Ajit Pawar, ministers Mangalprabhat Lodha and Adv. Ashish Shelar, MLAs Rajhans Singh and Parag Shah, Mumbai Mayor Ritu Tawde, Deputy Mayor Sanjay Ghadi, and senior officials. The real test now is the next domino: once the Sion bridge clears the path, the clock starts on the fifth and sixth Central Railway lines — and when those tracks open, Mumbai's commuter math changes fundamentally.