Mumbai opens Sion, Vidyavihar and Goregaon bridges to transform east-west travel

Mumbai's road network took a decisive step forward on Thursday as three major bridges opened to traffic, untangling severe bottlenecks across both the island city and the suburbs.

The three projects—the reconstructed Sion railway overbridge (ROB), the Vidyavihar east-west connector, and a 1.26-kilometre elevated corridor on the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road (GMLR)—represent a combined public investment of Rs 538 crore. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, joined by Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Sunetra Pawar, opened the links to vehicular traffic.

Together, the openings deliver immediate relief across long-congested east-west transit routes that have constrained daily movement for millions of commuters.

What the three new bridges deliver

Each project resolves a distinct engineering and geographic hurdle, from crossing busy rail corridors to bypassing choked arterial junctions:

Why the Sion bridge rebuild matters for rail and road

The previous 112-year-old road bridge at Sion had fallen into structural disrepair, forcing its closure after a 2019 safety audit. Rebuilding it required removing the central pillars resting between railway lines, which had blocked Central Railway from adding its planned fifth and sixth tracks between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and Kurla under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project.

Central Railway erected the new 61-metre span without intermediate pillars between the tracks, while the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) completed the approach connections. The four-lane structure, double the width of its predecessor, was completed four months ahead of its February 2027 target date. It restores direct arterial movement linking Dharavi, Bandra, the Bandra-Kurla Complex and Kurla with Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Road and the Eastern Express Highway.

Vidyavihar and Goregaon unlock key suburban routes

In the eastern suburbs, the 650-metre Vidyavihar overbridge completes a connection first conceived in 1991. Running across railway tracks from Ramchandra Chemburkar Marg in the east to Lal Bahadur Shastri (LBS) Marg in the west, the link diverts heavy commuter volume away from the crowded Ghatkopar station overpass. Civic planners estimate it reduces travel times between the two sides from roughly half an hour to barely ten minutes, alongside offering direct pedestrian walkways into Vidyavihar station ticket halls.

Further north, the six-lane Goregaon East flyover establishes an early milestone for the broader Goregaon-Mulund Link Road corridor. Stretching from General Arunkumar Vaidya Marg to Santosh Nagar on Film City Road, the elevated road lets motorists sail over chronic chokepoints at Dindoshi Court, the Ratnagiri Hotel intersection, and Walbhat River junction, drawing through traffic away from the Western Express Highway.

What happens next

With these three corridors functioning, the municipal corporation and railway authorities are turning attention to subsequent phases. Central Railway can now lay the additional lines between Kurla and CSMT without structural impediments overhead, while work progresses on twin underground tunnels planned beneath Sanjay Gandhi National Park to finish the full Goregaon-Mulund corridor.