Ambedkar Road becomes monsoon getaway, thanks to authorities' apathy

In mood for a quick getaway? Why not visit the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Road beneath the Bharatmata-Lalbaug flyover. The ineffective management of rain water on the flyover has led to the formation of a waterfall on the road.

"The rubber seal on expansion joints isn't proper. That needs to be fixed," said a civic official. But it is easier said than done.

A civic official, requesting anonymity, said only the rubber seal cannot be replaced. To fix the problem, all expansion joints on the five-and-a-half-year-old bridge will need to be replaced. In addition, the drainage pipes, too, have been damaged for months now. At certain locations along the 2.45km bridge, drainage pipes have come off, making the rain water fall directly on the road below.

In order to get these pipes fixed, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had approached the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), asking them to do the "needful" as the bridge was under a defect liability period a few months ago.

In 2011, the MMRDA inaugurated the bridge and then handed it over to the BMC for upkeep a couple of years ago. As part of the tender conditions, the contractor has to maintain a flyover for five years after the commissioning of the bridge.

"The contractor (J Kumar) wasn't ready to accept the responsibility. There were differences between MMRDA and the contractor on the defect liability period, ending this year. The contractor had said that the period should be counted from the day the inauguration was done, while MMRDA said it should be from the day all the components of the project were installed. This led to the delay in fixing the damaged pipelines, but we managed to get it done," said a civic official.

Now, there are plans to float a bid to undertake the repair job, which will happen only later this year.