The information sought from the RTI revealed that Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai has given more than 114 crore rupees in last 8 years to the Railways to repair or reconstruct the bridges. But looking at the worst conditions of bridges, the big question arises that where the hard earn money of Mumbaikarshas gone. Corporation officials claim that Railway is threatening them if they go to check the bridge repair work in the Railway boundaries.
The structural audit of dangerous bridges is going onthat come under the BMC and Railways in Mumbai. Due to the recent accidents where the Mumbaikars cost their lives, the bridge repair issue has been in limelight. The BMC have tried to skipped from their responsibilities by stating that they have given money to Railways and Railways said they have completed the work.
In Mumbai, there are 274 bridges under BMC and 455 bridges under Railway boundaries. One of these bridges, the Andheri foot over bridge had collapsed recently where two persons died in the accident. After the accident took place, the corporation and the railway started the structural audit of all the bridges. Meanwhile, the Lower ParelBridgehas been closed for traffic and for pedestrians also to avoid any danger. Several such bridges in Mumbai have been closed for traffic and pedestrians as their repair work was not done on time. But this is creating big inconvenience for the Mumbaikars.
The bridge repair & construction department of Mumbai Municipal Corporation has given Rs. 114 crores 50 lacs 16 thousand 43 rupees for the repairs to the Central Railway from 2010 to 2018. This information has been given by the corporation officials in the RTI filed by RTI activist Sameer Zaveri. Zaveri had raised the question in the RTI that why the Mumbai bridges are not yet been repaired despite of fund allotted. –
A. K. Singh, Senior Public Relations officer, Central Railway
We do utilize given by BMC in a right way. The fund given for bridges is used for bridge repairs and construction and the fund given to clean the drainage lines is used for the same work. The account of these work is time to time submitted in the meeting held to keep coordination between BMC & Railways. – Sameer Zaveri, RTI Activist
It is necessary to follow up with Railways to check whether they are utilizing the money given to them in proper way. The BMCcan monitor the bridge completion work through its engineering department. The BMC should submit the certificate of completion if the bridge work has been done. The Mumbaikar must get the information about what kind of work is being done with citizen’s money.
