FOB repair: BMC ready to pay full amount to Western Railway

In a tiff between the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Western Railway, passengers of Malad are suffering for the last 4 months. Both the organisations have finally resolved problems and now, Malad passengers can accept the repairing and opening of a foot over bridge (FOB) in the near future.

There are more than 20 foot over bridges on the Western track that extends between Churchgate and Borivali. The Railways takes care of bridges under their jurisdiction and the BMC used to pay an amount for the same. But, this time the BMC wasn't ready to give 50 per cent of the amount required for repairing.

"Every year we dispense repairing amount but we haven't received bills for the past 10 years from the Railways. So, this time we had decided to give only 10 per cent of the amount at the beginning. But, officials from the Railways took an extreme step and passengers were suffering, "said a BMC officer on the condition of anonymity.

After the incident of Andheri bridge collapse, the railway closed the Malad skywalk also. It connects part of Malad east to the station directly. Even after closing bridge, the railway hadn't started repairing work for last 4 months and that irritated passengers. The local politician also took a stand and demanded to start work soon. They even threatened to take to the streets if the railway administration did not repair the FoB within seven days. "The delay in carrying out the repairs is due to the disagreement between the BMC and the railways. BMC is ready to share the initial 10 per cent of the repair fund. But the railways wants at least 50 per cent of the amount," said Vinod Shelar, ex-corporator of Malad.

"We don't want to disturb passenger's movement. So BMC is ready to give not only 50 per cent amount demanded by railway but the full amount of Rs. 9.38 Crore. We are ready with the cheque and will deliver it to railway within a day or two," said an officer from BMC.