Counting Down to 90 - Week 1554 - The Matunga Z Bridge

The Concept Explained

Counting Down to 90 - Week 1579

Why 1579

Bhavin's WritingsBhavin Jankharia

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I remember when I was in school and junior college, walking to Badal Bijli Barkha to watch movies. My friends and I would take the Matunga Z bridge at the north end of Matunga East station, then cross over to the Western side, then walk over the Matunga Road bridge, turn into Mogul lane and then walk to the theaters. It would be what…around a 30 minutes walk or so? Remember, we were all feral at the time, with no trackers and as long as we got home in time for lunch or dinner, no one asked questions or even cared…the only challenge was coming up with the money to see the movies.

Like with so many things, the bridge lost its relevance for me once I entered medical college in LTMMC and there was no reason to use it.

Last month, Bijal and I decided to make the Z bridge as part of our Sunday morning walk. The approach, off Bhandarkar road, is still a bit dirty, but the new bridge has been done up (it was shut for about 18 months or so) and it was very quiet that Sunday morning, except for a few people returning after a run organized by ICT (formerly UDCT).

Funnily Google Maps does not show the bridge at all (you can check if you want using terrain and satellite), while Apple Maps does. It is a zig-zag bridge, rather than an actual “Z”. I have added red lines to the Apple Maps image to show the “Z”, but at the Matunga West end, it goes towards Matunga road and becomes “zig-zag”. 

You can see the map created by our walk that follows the Apple Map route.

The Z bridge crosses over the Central Railway tracks immediately (did you know that Matunga railway station opened on 1^st Oct 1883, as part of the GIPR - Greater Indian Peninsula Railway, which was the first railway line in India, starting in 1853, named as Central Railway in 1951). After the railway crossing, almost 800 m is a walk through the Matunga Carriage Repair Workshop. On our way back, we got off at the Matunga East end of the workshop and took this picture showing the straight long part of the bridge.

At the Western end, it just ends near the gate of the Repair Workshop and I guess the connector to the Matunga Road railway station bridge is still to come. 

We found the bridge clean and nice though the floor can be a little slippery. 

The origin of the bridge is shrouded in mist, though I am sure the railways know more. I just could not find anything online, except that the bridge is 100 years old. In Ashwin Panemangalore’s old blog post, there is a reference to Lady Hardinge Road built and named in 1914, now called T Kataria Marg since 1968. This is the road connecting the Western Railway part of this area through L J Road to Mahim Bazaar Road, which then crosses over to the 90 feet road in Dharavi. 

It is likely that the Z bridge came up as a pedestrian causeway at the time, so it is probably 110 years old. My Dad remembers using it as a student to cross over from East to West in the 1950s.

Over the years it became decrepit and was labeled unsafe for both women and men in the 2010s. It was shut down last year and was reopened in Feb/March this year. The new bridge is shiny and clean and hopefully will remain so because it serves as an important connector between the East and West and despite the Coastal road and the Atal Setu, which are built for people with cars, the majority of people in this city still walk or cycle or use public transport. When we were walking, we saw a family that alighted at Matunga East station, took the Z bridge, crossed over and then got onto their two-wheelers that were parked a little away from the Z bridge to go wherever they had to go.

When we got off to enter the Carriage Repair Workshop, we also saw a small garden there, which I guess is for the workers. At the other end of the bridge, is a Western Railway colony, I didn’t know existed, and it has a small jogger’s park inside. This was all very interesting.

If anyone knows anything more about the Z bridge, especially its origin (when was it constructed, who built it), do let me know and if you have any stories to share about the bridge, please do so in the Comments.