FPJ Impact: BMC fixes danger grill gutter on road near Kemps Corner

The BMC on Saturday evening fixed the iron grill gutter on the road near Kemps Corner once again to ensure that no bicycle tyre gets stuck. FPJ in its May 11 edition had reported about Premal Vashani, an avid cyclist, suffering injury to his face and hand after his bicycle tyre got stuck into the iron grill laid on the road by BMC and fell.

Cyclists said that BMC should place other the iron grills in city horizontally or do something about it so that there is risk to cyclists.

Cyclists unhappy with BMC's work

When FPJ reported the accident, BMC had already welded an iron plate into the gap in which the tyre was stuck. However, cyclists were unhappy with the work as they felt that the gap could still lead to tyres getting stuck. They were also unhappy that the BMC had not touched the other side of the gutter grill at all.

Cyclists had visited the spot on Saturday and shared pics of the tyre still going into the narrow gap without anyone sitting on the bicycle. More dangerous, they said, was the tyre getting stuck badly if a person would be sitting on the bicycle and unmindfully rides over the gutter grill.

“We fixed the gap on Saturday evening,” said an engineer.

Cyclists tweeted that they were “happy” that BMC had taken cognisance of it and that other grills across the city will also be taken care of. “Now this is fixed properly,” said Vashani.

Amrish Vora, another cyclist who had tagged Premal's accident video to BMC, said that he hoped to see that authorities keep cyclists in mind before doing any further road work.

FPJ tried contacting P Velrasu, additional municipal commissioner (projects), to know about the policy of BMC on the issue but he was not available for comment. Talking to FPJ earlier, he had said, “We will look into the issue and decide further course of action.”