Bridges to undergo

THANE: Following the bridge collapse at Mahad on Tuesday night, the public works department (PWD) in Thane has decided to undertake a structural audit of all bridges in Thane city.

The guardian minister of Thane and state PWD minister Eknath Shinde directed officials to carry a structural audit of all the bridges across the district irrespective of its age. Shinde has drafted a letter to the railway authorities, asking them to get all their bridges audited.

The collapse of the Britishera bridge over Savitri river has highlighted the issue of old and ill-maintained bridges across the state.

The Thane district has bridges across Thane creek, Ulhas river, Kalu river and the Valdhuni river. The authorities have already closed the Kalwa bridge along the Thane creek as a precautionary measure.

Shinde said, “There are many old bridges across the district. I have given directives to the PWD department to carry out audit of all these bridges on war footing. Based on the audit report, the repair works on those found faulty should immediately be undertaken.”

“We will ensure that the department does not face any budget crunch for repairs. Apart from this, the district also has several old railway bridges. I have drafted a letter to the railway authorities to carry out an audit of their bridges,” said Shinde.

Shinde said apart from repairing the bridge, those which are old and weak will be closed down immediately. New bridges will be constructed in place of the old ones, he said.

JN Gangurde, executive engineer of PWD, Thane, said, “There are many bridges in Thane, but not many are old. We had conducted meeting to start the audit of those bridges which are old and in dangerous condition. We have closed some of them like the Durgadi bridge for traffic.”