BMC to create inventory of 261 bridges in city

With complaints pouring in every day from commuters on Mumbai's pothole-ridden bridges, the civic body seems to have finally snapped out of inaction.

With complaints pouring in every day from commuters on the city’s pothole-ridden bridges, the civic body seems to have finally snapped out of inaction.

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The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to create an inventory of all the 261 bridges under its jurisdiction ahead of repairs — this is more than two years after the state-appointed standing technical advisory committee (STAC) recommended that such a detailed study of flyovers be conducted.

The step comes after numerous complaints of the poor condition of flyovers in the city such as the Elphinstone bridge, Dadar TT flyover and Kavi Keshavsut bridge among others.

“As such a comprehensive study will be conducted for the first time, a number of details regarding the scope of the inventory had to be worked out with STAC members.

These have now been finalised and we are in the process of preparing documents for stating the terms of reference,” said SO Kori, chief engineer, department of bridges.

Kori said that a team of 12 consultants would be appointed within the next two months for the four-month study, which will comprise information on the type of foundation, structural design, year of construction, height, length, condition and load-bearing capacity of the bridges.

“Many of the bridges were constructed close to a hundred years ago. We need to compile data on the bridges so that the work on restoring and improving their condition can be undertaken scientifically,” said Kori.

Civic officials said that agreements had been finalised with seven consultants and the remaining five were also in concurrence with the plan.

Additional municipal commissioner SVR Srinivas said that there was a need to fasttrack the study of old bridges in the city to categorise their repair on prority basis.

“When an inventory is prepared, bridges would be classified into three categories — those that are in good condition those that need minor repairs and those where major retrofitting works need to be carried out,” said Srinivas.