Sharad Pawar demands white paper on the state of city bridges

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Sharad Pawar on Friday took a dig at the BJP government for actively pursuing the Rs 1.25 lakh crore bullet train project while not paying enough attention on the improvement in existing railway infrastructure in the city. He also demanded that a white paper be released giving details with the regard to the present state of bridges across the city.

Pawar said the Central Railways on November 11, 2015 had submitted a letter to the state government highlighting the precarious conditions of bridges in the city. A day after the collapse of foot overbridge just 500 mt from the BMC's headquarters, Pawar at press conference here demanded that an inquiry be constituted to probe whether the structural audit of the Himalaya bridge connecting CSTM was carried out properly. Pawar said, ''The government should focus on the upgradation of railway stations instead of implementation of bullet train."