BMC to spend Rs 14 crore literally scraping roads

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After spending crores of rupees for years on resurfacing bridges with asphalt that is now weighing them down, the BMC plans to remove all of it at a cost of another Rs 14.4 crore.

As per two proposals submitted by the civic body, a single contractor will carry out the work on 16 ROBs, half of which are over railway lines. The decision has been taken based on a structural audit conducted by IIT-B, which states that unused service cables and extra layers of asphalt on the bridges should be removed to lessen their load.

Over the years BMC has layered bridges with asphalt to make them smooth for traffic. After the Gokhale bridge collapsed last year, an IIT-B survey revealed that it collapsed due to the excessive load of utility wires and tiles.

According to sources, the civic body will table both proposals in the standing committee meeting this week following which the contract will be given to M/S Shah and Parikh.

Over the years BMC has layered bridges with asphalt to make them smooth for traffic. File pic

A BMC official said, "All bridges will be reconstructed in future but for now the extra layers of asphalt will be removed and resurfaced to reduce the excessive load on the bridges." Sources said that the asphalt layers would be removed till the desk slab and then depending upon the structure, they would be resurfaced with single layers of asphalt.

Reducing load

Proposal 1

• Mahalaxmi station
• Prabhadevi station - Carrol bridge
• Dadar - Tilak bridge
• Chinchpokali station north bridge
• Curry Road station north bridge
• Wadala station - Nana Phadanvis bridge
• GTB Nagar
• Matunga station - T H Kataria
• Total cost: Rs 8.50 crore

Proposal 2

• Belasis ROB
• Byculla Road ROB
• Diana ROB
• French bridge
• Princes Street
• Grant Road bridge
• Kennedy bridge
• Sandhurst bridge
• Total cost: Rs 5.90 crore

16
No. of ROBs from which extra layers of asphalt will be removed

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