42 engineers end stir after new civic chief’s assurance

MUMBAI: A day after municipal commissioner Praveen Pardeshi took charge, 42 bridge engineers who were on mass leave, called back their protest and resumed duty on Tuesday. The civic chief assured the engineers that he would look into their demands. The engineers were protesting against the arrest of former chief engineer of bridges, SO Kori, in connection with the Himalaya bridge collapse case.

On Monday, Pardeshi had met the leaders of the engineers’ union to resolve the deadlock. He assured them that no unjust action will be taken against the engineers. The engineers had also pointed out that they were not experts in monitoring structural audits and that arresting engineers for the bridge collapse was unjust. Pardeshi assured them that they will be trained by experts from the Indian Institute of Technology-bombay (IIT-B) to monitor the structural audits or inspect the bridges. He also assured them that the vacant posts in the civic departments will be filled immediately.

Sainath Rajyadhyaksha, from the municipal engineers’ union, said, “We had a meeting with the commissioner and he has assured us that no unjust action will be taken against officials. The main reason to call off the protest was that the commissioner had agreed to our demand that criminal action against officials accused in the bridge collapse will not be initiated before the departmental inquiry concludes.”

After the bridge engineers

called back their protest, engineers from all other departments, who had planned to go on a strike from today, have also revoked their decision. A slab of the Himalaya Bridge, near the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) had collapsed on March 14, killing seven people. Kori was in-charge of the bridges department when the audits of the bridges in the city were carried out.