Mumbai: BMC to issue notice to construction company over Andheri flyover mishap

The collapsed structure on the car

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will issue a show cause notice to the Hiranandani Group, a construction and real estate company, and also order repairs for a section of the Andheri flyover. According to a civic official, the portion that falls under Hiranandani's maintenance is scheduled for repair on Thursday.

Additional Commissioner Abhijeet Bangar said, "We have decided to send a notice to Hiranandani Group regarding Thursday's accident. According to the records, the flyover is maintained by the company. We will ask them for clarification about the incident. To be on the safe side, we have started the process of inviting tenders for the bridge's repair. They are responsible for maintaining the bridge. We will ask them to either cover the repair costs or handle the repairs themselves. The court case clearly indicates that the flyover is under the company's maintenance."

"The Hiranandani Group said that two decades ago, they had assisted Jog Engineering, which had bagged the contract in raising funds for the construction of the flyover. However, due to the company (Jog Engineering) being unable to repay the funds, the issue went into litigation. "No progress has been made so far and neither has the space below been commercially exploited in any way. We are hopeful that the matter can be resolved soon," said a company official.

A section of the commercial structure of the Andheri flyover collapsed onto a moving car on Thursday afternoon. The flyover was originally constructed by the PWD and transferred to BMC two years ago. The BMC official inspected the flyover following the incident. They confirmed the overall structural integrity.

According to the BMC official, the Public Work Department of the state government constructed the bridge under the Build Operate Transfer policy. The area below the flyover is commercial, which was handed over to the Hiranandani Group in 2005.