BMC Chief Uses Bihar Bridge Collapse as Example, Reassures Public on Mumbai Bridge Contractor

Mumbai: A day after an ex-corporator urged the BMC to cancel the bridge construction contract awarded to the M/S SP Singla firm, civic chief Iqbal Singh Chahal said that the contract can't be scrapped on “mere news which appears in newspapers”. An under-construction bridge, which was being built by the firm over the Ganga river in Bihar, recently collapsed. The incident prompted opposition leader in BMC, Ravi Raja, to write to the BMC, asking it not to proceed with the works given to the firm.

Talking to mediapersons, Chahal said, “We have got the design of the bridge (which is part of the Goregaon Mulund Link Road) verified from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay. Our project management consultant is also monitoring the ongoing work which is satisfactory.”

We will study Bihar bridge collapse report: BMC

Regarding the apprehensions raised by Raja, he said, “We will study the Bihar bridge collapse report once it's submitted by the inquiry committee. It has been said that the design of the collapsed bridge was not proper, but in our case the IIT-B has made the design.”

BJP MLA Ram Kadam said that the GMLR contract was given to earn commission when Uddhav Thackeray was in power. The former chief minister's aim was to get cuts from contractors, he said, requesting Chahal to scrap the contract and save Mumbai from a repeat of the incident which happened in Bihar.