Work starts at Delhi’s historic Mangey Bridge walkway

The project will cover areas from Hanuman Setu near Kashmere Gate to Chandrawal traffic light to Nigam Bodh Ghat, and key arterial roads including University Road, Rajpur Road and Under Hill Road.

The Public Works Department (PWD) has planned a walkway or footpath from the historic Mangey Bridge to Raj Ghat, which is likely to cross several areas, in a bid to improve pedestrian infrastructure and accessibility, officials aware of the matter said on Thursday.

Traffic passes from the Mangey Bridge connecting Red Fort with Salimgarh Fort on the outer ring road, Mahatma Gandhi Marg, in New Delhi on Tuesday. (Sanjeev Verma/Hindustan Times)

The project will cover areas from Hanuman Setu near Kashmere Gate to Chandrawal traffic light to Nigam Bodh Ghat, and key arterial roads including University Road, Rajpur Road and Under Hill Road.

“Once completed, the improved footpaths are expected to benefit thousands of daily pedestrians, including college students, residents and office-goers who rely on these routes for daily commute. This is a move towards promoting walking and non-motorised infrastructure,” said a PWD official.

The estimated cost of the project is ₹97.89 lakh and the department has set a completion deadline of 45 days. According to the tender floated on Thursday, the scope of work includes strengthening and repairing footpath sides, addressing damaged sections, improving surface finishes, and ensuring continuity of the pedestrian pathways. The work is likely to be started within a month.

The heritage Mangey Bridge was recently repaired after the structure was damaged due to being hit by trucks. The arches of the bridge were last repaired by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in July and August last year after a container truck got stuck under it, leading to damage to parts of the arch during extraction.

The bridge, which is over a century old, connects Red Fort with Saleemgarh Fort on the Outer Ring Road (ORR).

Officials said that any construction, including the road repair work and footpath construction, will be complicated due to the aged condition of the bridge. The bridge has needed repairs every couple of years and a major restoration was carried out before the Commonwealth Games in 2010, with the help of a team from the United Kingdom. Additionally, there is heavy traffic movement around the bridge from the Kashmere Gate interstate bus terminal (ISBT) due to traffic flow from northeast Delhi converging into the Ring Road.