Standing committee suggests trial runs

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Committee (BMC) standing committee, on Thursday, advised the administration to conduct a trial run before opening any bridge to vehicular movement. The move came after a 34-year-old pillion rider lost his life after the vehicle skidded on the recently inaugurated Ghatkopar-Mankhurd Link Road (GMLR).

Following the incident, opposition parties blamed the BMC for the shoddy construction.

However, the administration maintained that the accident occured due to speeding.

Ravi Raja, leader of opposition in the BMC, said that a trial run would give the engineers an impression of their performance in advance. “If a trial run is arranged with limited vehicles, the engineers would be easily able to identify the faults and rectify them before the bridge is opened to vehicular movement,” said Raja.

Prabhakar Shinde, BJP group leader in the BMC, said that his party had already pointed out the structural faults in the flyover a week after its inauguration. “The chief minister, himself, during the inauguration speech, had said that the construction is faulty. We had pointed out that the road is not balanced. However, the administration didn’t take our advice,” Shinde said. The BJP also questioned the need to open the bridge before it was completely ready.

Opposition leaders pointed out that the cost of installing the CCTV cameras was not mentioned in the original tender. “When the BMC is spending so much on the construction, they should have thought of installing the cameras well in advance,” said Raja. “The bridge was completed after a delay of three years and two contracts were changed. However, the contractors who delayed it were not fined by the administration,” said Shinde.