Maharashtra
Maharashtra has 35K bridges and their upkeep poses nightmarish challenge

Maharashtra has a stupendous 35,000-plus big and small bridges on roads in village, towns, cities, state or national highways, posing mind-boggling challenges for their regular upkeep and maintenance, with multiple agencies involved, but recording barely 100 structures crashing since 2000, top officials said.
As per government data, under the state’s Public Works Department (PWD) jurisdiction, there are 146 small, 105 big and five long bridges (total 256) from the pre-Independence era, some dating back to over 350 years and still functional.
In the post-Independence era, the state recorded massive development since 1957, with around 16,000 small, 2100 big and 100 long (total 18,200) bridges being constructed.
Besides, there are some 12,000, including 2,000 major bridges, on the national highways crisscrossing the state, an estimated 4,000 (total 16,000) in various civic bodies’ jurisdictions, like some 450-odd in Mumbai, not counting another huge number of bridges on the railway networks.
Despite the huge numbers of bridges, in the past 22 years, barely around 100 medium or small have crashed – 75 percent of them comprising masonry design and the rest raft design – in different parts of the state.
The worst crash was the washout of 106-year-old British-era masonry bridge on the heavily-flooded Savitri River near Mahad in Ratnagiri on August 2, 2016, which swept away two ST buses and around 10 other private vehicles with the death toll touching 40.
There have been other smaller crashes in Mumbai and other parts of the state in the past two decades though with lesser casualties or fatalities.
As per Indian Road Congress (IRC) norms, a “small bridge” spans 06-60 metres, a “big bridge” is 60-200 metres and a “long bridge” is 200 metres plus and can go upto a few kms in length, each posing unique challenges for their upkeep and safety.
These bridges comprise a variety of designs, architecture styles and materials depending on their location, whether linking hills, mountains, passing over rivers, streams, drains (nullah), creeks, the sea (the Rajiv Gandhi Bandra Worli Sea Link or the upcoming Mumbai Trans Harbour Link), flyovers, road over-bridge, foot over-bridge, etc.
“There are prescribed SOPs for checks, routine, pre-monsoon and post-monsoon maintenance for all bridges, but with a staff of around 5,000, its possible to cover only around 35 per cent of the bridges in a year,” revealed a senior PWD officer, requesting anonymity.
As per the SOPs, any initial complaints go to the concerned local PWD office which sends out teams to inspect, and if there are serious problems, specialised team with experts from within and outside (like IITs, IIE, etc.) examine it scientifically, said the officer, who has personally inspected around 1,000 bridges in the past two decades in some of the most hazardous terrain.
Then, the cumbersome work of making reports, proposals, budget estimates, sourcing the funds, setting the time-frame, etc, takes place, and again depending on the urgency of the work, it may or may not be prioritised as paucity of finance remains the biggest hurdle.
A former PWD Chief Engineer of Bridges had suggested to the state government and Union Minister for Roads & Highways Nitin Gadkari to rope in the 30,000 students from civil engineering colleges studying in their two final years to help in the inspection works.
“They can form a part of the local PWD inspection teams and theoretically can inspect all the 35,000-bridges in the state in just a couple of days. This exercise can be done twice a year to reveal all the maintenance flaws and potential risks to any structure,” he said.
The students would be guided by the PWD experts, and it would have proved an invaluable academic field exercise with some incentives like grace marks or extra grades in their exams, etc, but there was no movement on his suggestion, rued the ex-CE.
Prescribing a regular “good health check-up” for all bridges, especially the old ones, a senior Highway Department officer appreciated the Indian Railways for their “constant vigil and dedicated teams carrying out daily, weekly, monthly inspections or biannual surveys of all their bridges” to ensure safety of the hundreds of trains hurtling around the country with passengers and cargo.
“Unfortunately, this zest is severely lacking among the states’ PWDs and virtually non-existent for the national highways authority, though the local civic bodies barely pass out on this count,” the officer said.
Touching on the Savitri River bridge crash, the PWD officer said it was nicknamed a “green bridge” as its fa�ade was completely covered with shrubs, bushes, creepers and small plants – but spelling a “red alert” from the safety aspect.
“Such overgrowth is rarely taken into account, another lurking danger is the dredging of sand from the water-bed in the vicinity, blatantly violating norms which weaken the bridge foundations and make it prone to a crash, overloading during peak hours which hasten the wear-and-tear, allowing vehicles to ply even when the flood levels touch or cross the red level marks, as it happened in the Savitri River case,” he said.
Officers from the Highways Department, PWD, civic bodies and others ruled that “unless regular inspection and maintenance” is carried out for all bridges – majority are already over 40-50 years old – there can be repetitions of the recent Morbi (141 dead) or the 2003 Daman & Diu (26 dead) type tragedies, with more risks added as new bridges come up practically every month in the massive expansion of the roads and railways in the country.
The inspection tasks are now considerably easier with the applications of computers, drones, satellites or other modern gadgets to scan the bridge health without physical presence, though the latest technological advancements come at a high price and are deployed on hardly one percent of all the structures in the state, the officials said.
Maharashtra
Mumbai News: BMC Struggles To Find Contractors For 153 ICU Beds In 12 Peripheral Hospitals Amid High Penalties

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is currently struggling to find contractors to operate 153 ICU beds across its 12 suburban hospitals. Due to the lack of bidders, the civic body has had to extend the tender deadline four times.
The main reason cited for contractors’ reluctance is the steep rise in penalty clauses introduced in the tender, where the penalty amount has been increased by 100 times.
BMC has decided to outsource the management of 153 ICU beds in its 12 suburban hospitals to private operators. Accordingly, a tender was issued on July 25. In the first round, only one company showed interest. Since there was just one bidder, BMC extended the deadline. However, no further interest was shown by contractors, forcing the civic body to extend the tender date four times within just two months.
In the new tender, the BMC has increased the penalty amount by 100 percent. Earlier, if a doctor was absent in a shift, the contractor not only faced salary deductions but also had to pay a fine of Rs 1,000. Now, the fine has been raised to Rs 10,000 per shift. If the same mistake occurs more than 10 times, the penalty will further increase to Rs 1 lakh per shift.
Under a two-year contract, the BMC plans to spend Rs 3,367 per ICU bed per day. For operating 153 ICU beds in 12 suburban hospitals with the help of specialists, the administration will incur a total expenditure of Rs 33 crore 5 lakh 5 thousand 200.
Earlier, the Health Department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) instructed four peripheral hospitals to manage their Medical Intensive Care Units (MICU) and Surgical Intensive Care Units (SICU) with internal resources after the outsourcing contract expired on August 30, despite being granted an extension.
A senior health department official confirmed that the ICU beds reserved at these hospitals will now be operated by the hospital staff themselves.
According to a senior civic official, this is only a temporary measure, as the process of appointing a new contractor is expected to be completed within the next one to two months.
However, several health experts, including doctors from BMC-run hospitals, have questioned the need for outsourcing ICU services altogether.
“For the last two weeks, hospitals have been managing ICU beds with their own resources. This can continue, and there is no real need to outsource them,” said a doctor on condition of anonymity.
Maharashtra
Mumbai: SIWS Junior College Staff Protest Against Vice-Principal In Wadala, Alleging Harassment And Misconduct

Mumbai: Several staff members of the SIWS Junior College, Wadala, staged a demonstration in front of the institution’s gate on Wednesday demanding action against the vice-principal Sheela Krishnan.
A memorandum with signatures of 30 staffers has been submitted to the principal. Among other things, the vice-principal has been accused of body-shaming a woman and passing comments against a male staff member, which resulted in ten teachers submitting a complaint against her.
Instead of dealing with the issue, the vice-principal has allegedly been targeting the ten teachers concerned.
The signatories also pointed to an incident last year when seats were surrendered during FYJC admissions. The vice-principal reportedly blamed the teachers for the same and threatened action against them.
Also, Hindi as an option has been removed from the admission form and Marathi has been added in its place which could reduce admissions. The signatories stated that they have lost confidence in the vice-principal and demanded her removal.
Maharashtra
Maharashtra: 50-Year-Old Man Slips While Alighting Train In Akola, Rescued With Gas Cutter

Akola: A 50-year-old man sustained injuries after he slipped while alighting a train and got trapped under it in Maharashtra’s Akola district, the Railway Police said on Tuesday.
The incident occurred at the Murtijapur railway station around 4.20 pm on Monday, an official said.
Mushtaq Khan Moin Khan was alighting from the Pune-Amravati train on platform no. 2 when he lost his footing, slipped and got trapped under the train, he said.
The official said the Railway Police had to extricate the injured passenger with the help of a local rescue team, and a gas cutter was used to remove the footboard of the train and pull him out safely.
Khan suffered serious injuries to his legs and was rushed to a local government hospital, where he is undergoing treatment, he added.
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