The city is likely to face heavy traffic and chaos in the monsoon, as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) plans to shut 20 dilapidated bridges.

Under fire after the collapse of CSMT foot overbridge (FOB), the BMC re-audited bridges in the city and found 29 to be dangerous. Eight of them have been demolished. Out of the 21 bridges, 10 are closed or partly closed and 11 are still in use, in the absence of alternatives. One of them, a bridge in Ghatkopar, was shut on Friday. Of the 21, 18 are in the western suburbs and three in the eastern suburbs.

Some of the major bridges that have been declared dilapidated, but are still in use are Bandra-Dharavi Bridge, Juhu Tara road bridge, Chandawadkar Nalla 120-feet link road, Malad, Oshiwara nullah SV road, Prem Nagar nullah, Malad and Neelkanth bridge, Ghatkopar .

The shutting down of the Ghatkopar Bridge over Laxmi Baug nullah led to massive traffic jams on the Eastern Freeway and Eastern Express Highway. A senior official from the BMC’s bridges department said the bridge was not audited in the previous audit, but during the re-audit, it was found that the steel had corroded and the bridge had to be shut down. “The bridge was not audited as it was supposed to be merged with a parallel rail over bridge, which was to be extended eventually,” said the official. “The traffic on Ghatkopar road was owing to mismanagement by the traffic department. There are many parallel roads for east-west connectivity in the city.” The civic body is also inspecting 77 other bridges in the city. As the audit progresses, decision will be taken based on the report.

First Published: Jun 03, 2019 23:46 IST