Civil contractors working on the three Metro projects are having a tough time in securing heavy equipment and machinery from thieves who tend to steal them from construction sites.

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DNA spoke with several representatives from the firms carrying out Metro civil works for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), who said that incidents of theft are taking place every other night at Dahisar-DN Nagar Metro-2A corridor and Dahisar East-Andheri East Metro-7 corridor construction sites.

"There are times when steel, iron or rubber is lifted. These thefts take place in the night when culprits can take advantage of the dark," said a top representative from a firm carrying out Metro construction work.

"We have not approached the police or filed a case because a lot of time goes in all the procedures. We are ensuring our security personnel is more alert," the representative added.

Another representative DNA spoke to, said, "Sometimes, it's the people on the inside, who are involved in lifting costly materials. Also, we are working on public roads and it's not possible to not allow people to pass along the construction site. We have, however, requested the police patrolling teams to be extra vigilant at night."

A senior MMRDA official said, "When such huge projects are ongoing, contractors are well aware that thefts tend to happen but they don't file cases because that increases their paperwork."

Meanwhile, Pravin Darade, additional metropolitan commissioner, MMRDA said, "Twenty-five per cent of civil works on both Metro-2A and Metro-7 is complete."