The ill-fated bridge on the Savitri river at Mahad was supposed to be pulled down this December.
The ill-fated bridge on the Savitri river at Mahad was supposed to be pulled down this December. However, torrential rain in the Mahabaleshwar belt caused its collapse, which is feared to have taken 42 lives.
Chandrakant Patil, minister for public works, said, “The bridge was about to be dismantled for the Mumbai-Goa-highway-widening project in December this year. However unfortunately, it got washed away due to heavy rainfall in Mahabaleshwar.”
So far, 26 bodies have been recovered from the site while nearly 14 people are still missing and feared dead after two State Transport (ST) buses and other vehicles plunged into the river following the bridge collapse on Mumbai-Goa highway on August 2.
The widening of Mumbai-Goa highway had been undertaken by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI). Under this project, the bridge was to be demolished to make way for a four-lane road.
Mr Patil said it would be the responsibility of NHAI to reconstruct the bridge. Union minister for surface transport Nitin Gadkari had taken the responsibility for the mishap and announced that the NHAI would reconstruct the bridge in 18 months. The three-member committee of experts from Indian Institute of Technology, appointed by the state government, has commenced studying the structure. The process of constituting a judicial inquiry has also been set in motion.
The state has decided to check the structural stability of old bridges in the state. There are about 2,300 bridges in the state, out of which 100 date back to the British Raj and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s era.
The bridges will be checked twice every year to ascertain whether they should be repaired or reconstructed, said the minister. Also, a bridge division will be created in each administrative division of the state.
