Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday said that it will monitor progress in reconstruction of the skywalk near Bandra (East) station and asked the BMC to file affidavits every three months on the progress and to complete the project in less than 15 months.
The HC also remarked that the officers concerned have no regard to the statement already made before the court. The court was dealing with a concern raised by advocate KPP Nair over the non-availability of a foot over bridge (FOB) connecting Bandra (East) station towards the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) office, leading to Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC).
The BMC assured the court that it commenced the construction work on March 1 and would complete it in 15 months, including the monsoon period. Senior advocate Anil Singh, appearing for BMC, said: “Our estimate is 15 months. We will try to finish it before that?” When the court asked why the civic body took 15 months to start the work, Singh said that the administrative work took time.
“Solemn statements made by (BMC) officers before court are not being paid heed to. Officers have no care to abide by the statement before court,” Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya said. Singh said he was not justifying the delay but assured that this time the work would be done as per the timeline.
“Mr Singh stated that in fact a lot of administrative and procedural aspects prior to commencement to actual construction took some time. Having gone through the list of dates, we are, however, not satisfied with the time taken by such an admin procedure of the matter,” a bench of Chief Justice Upadhyaya and Justice Arif Doctor said. It added that the time should have, in fact, ought to have been reduced at the end of the BMC itself.
Since the construction has started, the bench said it does not wish to take matters any further. “All endeavour will be taken to complete the same even before the expiry of such a period,” it underlined. The HC has asked the BMC to file periodical affidavits every three months giving details of progress made in construction.
Nair had also raised the issue about the bad condition of the footpath connecting the Bandra station with the Western express highway and sought repair / reconstruction of the same.
Singh said that the footpath was on railways land and hence its repair/ maintenance would be the responsibility of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).
“So far as footpath is concerned, we direct that appropriate authority at the highest level in the BMC take up the issue of construction and maintenance with railways and MMRDA and sort out amongst them steps which need to be taken for construction / reconstruction / maintenance of footpath,” the bench concluded. The HC has kept the matter for hearing on July 11.
