Constructing Metro stations not same as flyover: Bombay HC

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Wednesday refused to entertain a petitioner's prayer challenging award of tender for construction of 11 Metro stations to the contractor who constructed the Lalbaug flyover. The petitioner withdrew the prayer after the court said that he could not make such a prayer in the main public interest litigation (PIL) filed with regard to bad construction of the Lalbaug flyover as construction of a flyover and that of a station were two different things.

Activist Bhagwanji Raiyani's lawyer, advocate Sumedha Rao, stated the PIL before a division bench of justice A.S. Oka and justice M.S. Sonak. Advocate Rao told the court that within just five years of construction, the flyover had deteriorated and despite that, a work tender of around Rs 1,080 crore had been awarded to the company that constructed the flyover for construction of Metro stations.

This irked the bench which said that construction of a bridge and construction of a station were two different things.

The bench also said that the prayer abused the process of law in that it should have been confined to the main PIL which is about construction of the flyover.

Mr Raiyani, in his PIL, alleged that the flyover was shoddily constructed and a major disaster was imminent unless it was overhauled or rebuilt after a structural audit.