Mumbai: BMC to reduce load of utility wires on bridges

Traffic in Andheri has been out of whack since the partial closure of Gokhale bridge. Pic/Ashish Raje, Datta Kumbhar

The excess load of utility wires was stated as one of the reasons behind last year's Gokhale bridge collapse. Almost a year after that, the BMC plans to take precautionary measures so that the incident is not repeated. Civic chief Praveen Pardeshi has instructed the bridges department to check the load of wires on bridges and shift them accordingly.

Western Railway had earlier written to the civic body asking them to consider limiting the weight of utility cables on bridges that cross over railway lines. They had also mentioned that prime facie the weight of over 60 wires on the pedestrian pathway of the Andheri bridge added up to the total weight and led to the collapse.

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At a meeting with heads of department, ward officials and deputy municipal commissioners, Pardeshi asked for proper ducting along roads to shift the wires. In his first interaction with the media, he had said how the utility cables played spoilsport while fixing roads and that he had initiated work on shifting them in a proper manner.

A senior civic official said, "The wires that are adding to a load of bridges will be shifted after a study. With the additional layers of wires, also comes extra layers of cement, which increases the load. Consultants will be hired for laying ducts and shifting the wires instead of keeping them underground in a haphazard manner." Sanjay Darade, a chief engineer of bridges department, was not available for comment.

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