Mumbai: Cracked, broken Marine Lines bridges fixed

The FOBs on the east side of Marine Lines station that were repaired by the civic body, on Tuesday. Pics/Sameer Markande

The BMC repaired the broken tiles on the two foot overbridges at Marine Lines station, following a mid-day report highlighting the issue on Tuesday. Satish Thosar, chief of the bridges department, said repair work was initiated after complaints from citizens. He added that the department may consider different tiling to avoid such issues in the future.

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The staircase, which had broken tiles and gaps, has now been fixed

The cracked tiles on the FOBs on the east side of the station were a point of concern for commuters. Many of them had complained that both the bridges, opened by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation only two months ago, needed repairs, as the broken tiles and gaps posed risk to them, especially during rush hours.

"Why did the BMC wait for someone to remind them of the repairs? Did they take action on the contractor who made such a mess? And what about the rest of the work because the whole tiling work is substandard," said Nilesh Bane, a commuter.

The two FOBs at Marine Lines, one at the north end and the other connecting Chandanwadi crematorium, were among eight bridges that were declared dangerous after the collapse of Himalaya bridge at CST in March 2019. In June that year, the BMC gave the contract to reconstruct the two FOBs to M/s SVJ Inovabuild Pvt Ltd at Rs 4.35 crore, which was 33 per cent more than the earlier estimate of Rs 3.27 crore. While the structures were to be ready in 18 months, excluding monsoon, the contractor finished it on May 31, 2022.

June
Month in 2019 when the contract for the two FOBs were signed