How engineers' strike will affect bridge repairs in Mumbai

Bridge work at the Byculla-Parel flyover and the construction of the new flyover at Sai Wadi junction at Andheri East will be hampered by the mass leave. Pics/Rane Ashish

Even before the monsoon can challenge the city's crumbling infrastructure, discontent among civic officials has already begun to hamper work. As many as 42 engineers of the BMC's Bridges department have decided to go on a mass leave as a sign of protest against the arrest of SO Kori, former Chief Engineer of the department.

He was arrested on Tuesday over the Foot Over Bridge collapse that killed seven earlier this year. Last week, there was also news about the slow pace of road repair work in the city ahead of the monsoon. As on date, 40 bridge project works, 170 minor repairs on city's bridges and 47 major repair works are pending, which were to be taken care of before the monsoon. However, with the engineers going on leave till May 21, the work will not be supervised.

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Bridge repair work at the Bycullta-Parel flyover has been affected owing to election duty postings of civic officials

According to the BMC, work on these was likely to conclude by May 15 but it now seems difficult. Work was earlier affected owing to much of the BMC staff being on election duty. Repairs at Goregaon's Mrinaltai Gore flyover extension, Andheri Teli Galli flyover and Lalbaug Parel flyover among several others had to suffer then and will be affected again, sources revealed. While most officials had resumed work on May 6, they will be missing in action yet again.

According to the engineers' letter accessed by mid-day, they are upset over the ambiguous criminal charges filed against BMC engineers. Many of them also turned up to work wearing a black band as a sign of protest on Thursday. Their application of mass leave stated that they will not be present at work from May 9 to 21 since they felt a lack of security and "work cannot be done in such an environment." Criminal charges against a public servant, they said, were unacceptable. They are unhappy with the action against Kori despite the BMC's inquiry report yet to be disclosed. Administrative action can be taken instead of levelling criminal charges, said one of the engineers.

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Construction of the new flyover at Sai wadi junction near Regency Hotel, Andheri East, too will be hampered by the mass leave

Civic body mulls options

The Bridges department has 104 sanctioned engineer posts with only 57 filled while 47 remain vacant. With 42 going on a mass leave, the civic body is left in a lurch. A senior civic official, on the condition of anonymity, said, "Monsoon is just a month away and we were looking at completing the pending works so that there could be supervision before closing work. However, our entire plan has gone for a toss now. We will need to re-strategise or try and convince the engineers to come back to work." Despite repeated attempts at reaching Sanjay Darade, chief engineer of Bridges department, he remained unavailable for comment.

57
No. of engineers in the Bridges department

05
No. of engineers on duty after mass leave

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