The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to create an
inventory of all the 261 bridges under its jurisdiction ahead of
repairs — this is more than two years after the state-appointed standing
technical advisory committee (STAC) recommended that such a detailed
study of flyovers be conducted.

The step comes after numerous complaints of the poor condition of
flyovers in the city such as the Elphinstone bridge, Dadar TT flyover
and Kavi Keshavsut bridge among others.

“As such a comprehensive study will be conducted for the first time, a
number of details regarding the scope of the inventory had to be worked
out with STAC members.

These have now been finalised and we are in the process of preparing
documents for stating the terms of reference,” said SO Kori, chief
engineer, department of bridges.

Kori said that a team of 12 consultants would be appointed within the
next two months for the four-month study, which will comprise
information on the type of foundation, structural design, year of
construction, height, length, condition and load-bearing capacity of the
bridges.

“Many of the bridges were constructed close to a hundred years ago.
We need to compile data on the bridges so that the work on restoring and
improving their condition can be undertaken scientifically,” said Kori.

Civic officials said that agreements had been finalised with seven
consultants and the remaining five were also in concurrence with the
plan.

Additional municipal commissioner SVR Srinivas said that there was a
need to fasttrack the study of old bridges in the city to categorise
their repair on prority basis.

“When an inventory is prepared, bridges would be classified into
three categories — those that are in good condition those that need
minor repairs and those where major retrofitting works need to be
carried out,” said Srinivas.