In an act of polls-oriented showboating, BMC's standing committee cleared proposals worth nearly Rs 2,300 crore in February ans March, but it came at the cost of the proposal to repair the FOB (Foot OverBridge) that collapsed on Thursday, plunging six people to their deaths.
Most of the proposals okayed last Saturday pertained to beautification or visible changes that would seduce voters, such as air-conditioning an auditorium, landscaping various public gardens, new uniforms for municipal workers and so on.
However, the proposals to repair bridges in the city, including the Himalaya bridge, was not given priority and pushed forward to next week, says an official from the Bridges department of BMC. Eventually, it could not be tabled as the Election Commission's Model Code of Conduct came into force.
The Standing Committee, usually meets once a week, but met three times last week to clear these "crucial projects" before the Code of Conduct set in; only few of them pertained to citizen safety.
One of them replaced hospital staff by outsourcing cleaning work at a cost of Rs 232 crore. A Rs 1.2 crore proposal for installing air-conditioning in an auditorium was cleared, as well as new uniforms for municipal staff worth Rs 4.2 crore. A heft Rs 20 crore was greenlit for landscaping and beautification of three gardens.
Proposed repairs of bridges, that could jeopardize the lives of lakhs of citizens got stuck in the administrative process. Proposal for the CSMT bridge was only for 'minor' repairs that would cost only a few crores.
"The administrative process was on and in a couple of weeks, the proposal was to be tabled," said an official from the Bridge department. A senior official from the department informed that the repair work on bridges across the city was already underway, and Thursday's bridge was on the list. Despite repeated attempts, the chairman of the Standing Committee was not available for comment.
‘LACK OR ABSENCE OF SUPERVISION’
CHIEF ENGINEER’S REPORT HOLDS AUDIT FIRM, SUPERVISING ENGINEERS RESPONSIBLE
- The audit firm failed to take into account repairs undertaken in 2013 that added 1.43 tons of steel to the Himalaya bridge
- Departmental enquiry against 3 officials, including the then chief engineer
- Firms that audited and repaired bridge to be blacklisted and FIR to be filed against them
- All pending payments to both the companies will be held back
- All 296 bridges audited by them in 2017-18 will be audited, again
- Post of Chief Bridge Engineer be created to manage 374 BMC bridges
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