Even as residents are pressuring BMC to reopen BG Kher Road, the roads and hydraulic departments say they have to tread cautiously to prevent any future damage
BG Kher Road has been closed for vehicular movement since August 2020. Pic/Shadab Khan
BG Kher Road at Malabar Hill, which has been shut for the last two years, might not open until next monsoon.
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The stretch, formerly known as Ridge Road, is an important one as it links Malabar Hill and Walkeshwar to the rest of Mumbai. Residents have been demanding that BMC open the road to motorists soon, but the civic body is treading cautiously with the repair work.
The road developed huge cracks after the retaining wall collapsed on August 5, 2020. Though no one was injured, water mains were ruptured in the incident. While the BMC laid down temporary pipelines to supply water to the area, the road hasn’t been open to the public yet.
Speaking with mid-day, a BMC official said, “The work has been divided into two parts—laying down two water mains and construction of a road. The construction activity couldn’t start immediately after the incident as the technical advisory committee instructed the BMC (see box) to wait for another monsoon, before carrying out any excavation or construction work.” He said the work started “after several soil tests”.
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Another official from the hydraulic department said, “The work of installing water pipelines is 40 per cent complete. We have temporarily stopped work, as we cannot take the risk of digging during the rainy season. The remaining work will start in October after the end of monsoon. We aim to complete laying of pipelines by the end of December so that construction of the road and a storm water drain can start simultaneously.”
The roads and traffic department of the BMC said they won’t start work on repairing the road until the pipelines are placed underneath. “The pipeline work is expected to take two more months,” said Ulhas Mahale, deputy municipal commissioner of infrastructure.
The delay in the reopening of the road has led to bottlenecks during peak hours. Indrani Malkani, founder secretary of the Little Gibs Road ALM, said, “The BG Kher Road is the exit point from Malabar Hill towards Kemps Corner and was most used. During the pandemic, vehicular load was low, but now as all the activities are back on track, we see huge traffic on Walkeshwar Road and Nepean Sea Road.”
What tech panel said
The landslide on BG Kher Road had prompted the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations to form a technical committee to study the condition of soil and road before reconstruction of the patch. The technical advisory committee, which included professors from IIT-Bombay, had recommended the GeoTechnical investigation. After the preliminary study, the committee had suggested waiting for one monsoon before starting the repair work.
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