Mumbai: BMC clubs projects to lure contractors

The dilapidated Barve Nagar FOB in Ghatkopar. Pic/Datta Kumbhar

The civic body's Bridges department has failed to get a response to tenders floated twice for four of its projects in the eastern suburbs. Officials of the department have thus decided to club all the projects and even throw in two more to sweeten the pot.

The four projects consist of dismantling and reconstructing three foot overbridges in Mulund West, Ghatkopar West and Vikhroli East and one bridge near the Renaissance Hotel in Powai.

These four bridges feature in the list of bridges in a dilapidated condition and need to be demolished. Days after the FOB at CSMT railway station collapsed, civic chief Ajoy Mehta had directed the Bridges department to shut down 14 bridges in the city that were considered unsafe. Officials of the department have written to the ward offices asking them to close them all.

"We floated independent tenders for each of the projects twice around three months ago but haven't received any response. Since the scope of the work is too small, none of the contractors are willing to come forward. We have thus added two more small projects to it and combined all into a single tender," said a senior civic official from the Bridges department.

The tender now includes the construction of a new foot overbridge above a transmission nullah at Vikhroli and a new culvert bridge at a flooding spot in Saki Vihar. The new tender was floated on March 15 and a response is expected by the end of this month. All the works cumulatively will now cost Rs 4.39 crore.

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