BMC engineers go on 15-day leave to protest arrests

MUMBAI: As many as 42 engineers from the BMC’s bridges department went on leave from Thursday to protest the arrest of three BMC engineers in the Himalaya FOB crash.

A senior BMC official said the step would seriously hamper re-audit of bridges as well as their maintenance.
At a meeting in the evening, it was decided that all BMC engineers would join their bridges counterparts in a protest next week. “The engineers will work only for their regular hours on Monday and Tuesday, but from Wednesday to Friday, a protest would be held at Azad Maidan condemning the police action,” said Sainath Rajdhyaksha of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Engineering Union.
The move comes at a time when 40 projects, including construction of crucial bridges like Hancock and Delise bridges, are on. Major repair of 47 other bridges and minor repair of 170 are in progress.
The period before the monsoons is crucial for finalising tenders and issuing work orders. “With engineers from the department on strike, these works are likely to be hampered,” said a civic official. Of the total 57 engineers in the department, 42 — from the level of sub engineers to deputy chief engineers — applied for mass leave.
In October 2016, engineers of the civic road department went on strike after MNS workers made then roads chief engineer Sanjay Darade hold a placard near Sena Bhavan in Dadar saying he was responsible for the poor condition of roads. They relented after cops registered an FIR against two corporators.
After the FOB crashed, on April 1, Sandeep Kakulte, an assistant engineer in the bridge department, was arrested. A few days later, executive engineer A R Patil, who was supervising the structural audit of the bridge in 2017-18, was held. Earlier this week, BMC chief engineer (bridges) Shitala Prasad Kori was taken into custody.
Feelings are running high about the arrested engineers, especially Kori. “Kori is a straightforward officer and I have worked with him since he was in BMC in the early 1990s. It is shocking an officer with such sharp technical knowledge has been arrested. One cannot expect the chief of the bridges department to visit every site and that is why executive level officers are appointed,” said an official.
Kori was part of a two-member panel that probed the road scam in 2015 and its report led to the dismissal of six engineers.
“The re-audit of bridges has shown six more in a dangerous condition. These reports need to be further analysed. However, if we do not have the staff to do so, it will be difficult to carry on the work. The engineers have applied for mass leave for 15 days,” said an official. The bridges department already has 40% posts vacant, a recent NGO report said. Union leader Rajdhyaksha said cadre morale was low.