Mumbai: CM Devendra Fadnavis gives clean chit to BMC in Andheri bridge collapse incident

Mumbai: Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday gave a clean chit to the BMC in the Gokhale overbridge mishap. Fadnavis clarified that the responsibility of maintenance and conduct of safety audit of the bridge was with the railway authority. He also assured the Assembly that action will be taken against officials held responsible in the railway enquiry. The issue was raised in the lower house by BJP legislator Yogesh Sagar.

Responding to the queries, Fadnavis clarified that though it was a BMC bridge, it was maintained by the railway authority for which the BMC coughed up the maintenance cost annually. “In the last two years, 2017-18 and 2018-19, the BMC paid Rs 14.5 crore to the Central Railways and more than Rs 4.2 crore to the Western Railways as maintenance cost,” he informed the house.

“All the bridges on railway premise, though constructed by the BMC, should be maintained by the Railways which is obliged to conduct a safety audit as well. The Railways maintain bridges on a regular basis but they had not done a safety audit of the Gokhale overbridge, which was their responsibility,” added the CM. Replying to another query, Fadnavis said that instructions have been given to the concerned authority to repair bridges that have been found dilapidated in a survey.