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Traffic snarls to continue on Eastern Expressway, Amar Mahal flyover to reopen only next year
Mumbai city news: The government decided to replace the entire steel superstructure of the 230-m flyover after an expert committee declared it ‘unreliable’
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Commuters on the Eastern Expressway Highway in Mumbai will have to face traffic snarls until March next year as that is when repairs to the Amar Mahal flyover are expected to be completed.
The state public works department has finally issued orders giving the Nagarjuna Construction Company (NCC) nine months to complete repairs to the flyover that was shut to traffic on April 8 as two of its steel joints were found damaged. The government has decided to replace the entire steel superstructure of the entire 230-m flyover after an expert committee had declared it ‘unreliable’. NCC bagged the bid for repairs after it emerged the lowest bidder last week.
The superstructure refers to the part between the pillars and the deck of a flyover. In the case of Amar Mahal, the superstructure is made of steel and owing to excess load on the flyover, the joints have been damaged, officials said.
The northbound carriageway of the flyover was shut to vehicular traffic on April 8 after two of the joints were found damaged. The government then formed an expert committee headed by Dr Ravi Sinha, professor of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B), to study the problem. The committee found five of the ten joints were damaged after which it had recommended replacing the entire superstructure of 230 metres.
The repair work will be completed in two phases — in the first phase, work on the north-bound stretch — towards Thane — will be done and the repairs on the south-bound stretch — towards Mumbai — will be taken up in the second phase.
The public works department had called tenders for repairs and got three bidders — NCC Limited, J Kumar Infraprojects and Larsen and Toubro (L&T). On May 16, all three qualified the technical bid but in the financial bid opened on May 19, NCC emerged as the lowest bidder. It has quoted Rs 61.5 crore while the two others — J Kumar and L&T -- quoted Rs66 crore and Rs89 crore respectively, officials said.
