2 months after deadline, work on Mumbai’s Bandra Bandstand will be completed in 15 days: Officials

Mumbai’s bandstand residents said almost Rs4 crore has been spent on two phases of the project since 2013

Two months after its deadline, Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB) officials said repairs at Bandra’s Bandstand promenade would be completed in 15 days. Residents who had written to the MMB multiple times met with board officials on Wednesday. An inspection carried out on Thursday revealed problems with how work was executed, said officials.

The collapsed boundary wall at bandstand last month. (HT)

Bandstand residents said almost Rs4 crore has been spent on two phases of the project since 2013. “Phase II of the project started in October 2016 and was to be finished in June this year. However, it is still ongoing. The steps and wall built in Phase I have started to disintegrate owing to the monsoon tide,” said Robin Nath, secretary, Bandra Bandstand Residents Trust.

“The plan was to use plum concrete, or a mass of concrete, to withstand the force of the waves. But, only the top of the steps is concrete. The rest is hollow. The contractor is not following the plan and the MMB has failed to supervise his work,” said architect P K Das, volunteering as a consultant on the project.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Mumbai chief and MLA Ashish Shelar tweeted on Thursday that quality checks and a third-party audit would be carried out to ensure that work of a high quality.’

An MMB engineer told HT that the material used was tested and deemed usable. However, he said, owing to the lack of professional supervision, certain tiles and steps had broken off. “Only the tiles directly in contact with the waves came off. We will use packing concrete at these places,” he said.  “A proper schedule needs to be prepared and shared with the residents,” he added.

The official said lighting and amphitheatre-related repairs on the promenade would form Phase III of the project.