Devendra Fadnavis inaugurated the Sion Railway Overbridge in Mumbai on 22 October 2026 via a video‑conference, after a 4‑week closure that left 500,000 daily commuters stuck.
The 112‑year‑old bridge had been shut since August 2024, and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation missed four scheduled openings, the last on 15 October. Local Congress workers, led by Varsha Gaikwad, had even tried to pry open the barricades with a crane, only to be stopped by police.
The Vidyavihar East‑West bridge, ready for traffic, sparked a naming spat between the Uddhav Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena and the BJP, with the former pushing for ‘Padmashri Nana Patekar Setu’ and the latter proposing ‘Captain Smit Machhar Setu’ after a 2019 hijacking hero. The debate was settled only after a compromise naming ceremony.
During the Sion inauguration, South Indian musicians performed, prompting former mayor Kishori Pednekar to protest the absence of Maharashtra’s traditional tutari horn. The clash highlighted the city’s cultural politics as much as its traffic woes.
Fadnavis used the virtual ceremony to outline the BMC’s 59‑minute‑travel vision, saying ‘we are determined to let every resident reach any part of the city within an hour.’ A taxi driver from Bandra, who had endured the daily jam, added that the new bridge would cut his commute by an hour.
BMC officials will now monitor traffic for the first week after the opening, with plans to commence a routine maintenance schedule and to roll out Phase 2 of the Goregaon‑Mulund Link Road later this year.