An agency will be appointed by The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for a bi-annual inspection of all the bridges in Mumbai. The period for the same will be of five years.
In this one of its kind decision, it is said that the agency will comprise engineers, structural auditors, consultants, etc. Twice every year they will conduct routine inspections. Principal inspection will be conducted once every five years.
It was in March 2019, when the Himalaya Bridge at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) had collapsed. Since then, BMC had thought of the regular structural audits of all bridges of the city. There are 344 bridges in Mumbai. This includes the road and rail over bridges, as well.
There is an estimated cost of Rs. 4.11 crore by the BMC’s bridge department for the inspection to be done by the agency of the bridges in the Island city. According to the reports, BMC has also proposed that for periodic audits they will appoint a bridges’ inspector as well as bridges’ inspection authority.
BMC has also said that to appoint an agency for eastern and western suburbs a similar tender will be floated.
Addressing the same to the media, a civic official from BMC’s bridge department said “We need a rolling mechanism for regular inspection of bridges in the city. The bridges department does not have the manpower to do so annually. Hence, we are appointing consultants for the task. As of now, we have floated a tender to appoint an agency for the audit of bridges in the island city. We are working out the cost of appointing agencies for the suburbs as well, and those tenders will be floated soon.”
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