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Maharashtra has 35K bridges and their upkeep poses nightmarish challenge

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3 years ago

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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.

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Maharashtra

Samajwadi Party will contest Mumbai BMC elections alone Abu Asim Azmi

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18 hours ago

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November 19, 2025

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Mumbai: The Samajwadi Party will contest the Mumbai Municipal Corporation elections with full vigor, this was claimed by Maharashtra Samajwadi Party leader and worker assemblyman Abu Asim Azmi in a press conference held at Islam Gymkhana here today. He said that the situation in Govindi is very bad, there is a shortage of funds here and difficulties have arisen in providing funds. If any funds are sought, the excuse is given that the funds have been spent on the Ladli Behan Yojana and the funds are not available. He said that the Samajwadi Party is also participating in the Zilla Parishad and Gram Panchayat elections in Maharashtra. Along with this, Abu Asim Azmi has also announced to contest the elections alone on about 150 seats in the BMC elections.

Abu Asim Azmi said that from November 20, the Samajwadi Party will distribute AB forms to its candidates and this process will continue till December 5. The Samajwadi Party will field its candidates in the constituencies where its candidates will be able to participate in the elections with strength. He said that the way the Samajwadi Party had made an agreement with the Congress and Maha Vikas Aghadi last time, but it has been betrayed, he said that the Samajwadi Party was not provided a seat until the date of filling the form in the assembly elections ended and then two seats were given and no discussion was even held with us regarding this. The Samajwadi Party is free to take decisions for the elections in Maharashtra. National President Akhilesh Yadav has given full responsibility for this. He has made it clear that he is free to compromise with secular parties in Maharashtra to keep communal forces away from power. However, despite this, the attitude of a big party like Congress towards its allies is not appropriate and compromises are broken in the very elections. Therefore, the Samajwadi Party has now decided to contest the BMC elections alone. He said that in Maharashtra, a Samajwadi Party candidate is also in the fray in the Gram Panchayat Zilla Parishad elections, along with this, the Samajwadi Party will contest the elections on development works. He said that Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar had visited Govindi once and expressed concern about the plight of the streets here. After that, we demanded funds from Ajit Pawar and he promised to provide more funds, but when we talked to him, he said that the funds have been spent on the Ladli Behan Yojana. He said that elections have not been held for four years, so the condition of other districts including the corporation is very bad. He alleged that funds are not being provided to former members of our party, but if someone joins the Ajit Pawar group or Shinde Sena, it does not matter whether he was a corporator or not, funds are provided to him immediately. In such a situation, this discrimination should end and all former corporators should be provided funds because they understand the problems of their areas.

He said that the lives of the people have become unbearable due to the SMS company in Govindi Shivaji Nagar. The High Court has given more time to the company, due to which there is disappointment among the people. The issue will be approached in the Supreme Court. Abu Asim Azmi has once again strongly demanded from the government to close the SMS company and has also assured to take all necessary steps for this and has requested the people to strengthen the Samajwadi Party. Samajwadi Party leader Advocate Yousuf Abrahani, MLA Raees Sheikh, and other leaders were present in this press conference.

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Maharashtra

Mumbai: Massive Fire Breaks Out At Kurla’s LIG Colony Due To Gas Pipeline Burst

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20 hours ago

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November 19, 2025

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Mumbai: A massive fire broke out on November 19 in Kurla West near the Mubarak Complex at LIG Colony, reportedly triggered by a gas pipeline burst. Videos circulating on social media captured thick black smoke coming into the air as flames spread rapidly.

According to the visuals, the blaze was seen in the shop located on the ground floor of a residential building and firefighting officials were present at the spot trying to douse the fire. Several residential buildings are seen in the lane where the fire took place, bringing in security concern for residents.

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Maharashtra

Pune Zubair Hangekar’s Pakistan connection, hope for new conclusions in the investigation… ATS releases him after questioning 19 people so far

Published

2 days ago

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November 18, 2025

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Mumbai: Pune Suspected terrorist Zubair Hungakar’s contact list has Pakistani numbers. Zubair Hungakar’s mobile contact list has 5 international numbers. Numbers of Gulf countries were found in Hungakar’s old and used handset. The old handset has 1 number for Pakistan, 2 for Saudi Arabia, 1 number for Oman and 1 number for Kuwait. It has been found that 1 Omani and 4 Saudi Arabian numbers are stored in the mobile phone used.

When asked about this number, Zubair said in response to a question during interrogation that he did not know. Suspected Al-Qaeda member Zubair Hungakar has been sent to judicial custody. Zubair Ilyas Hungakar was arrested on charges of spreading jihad in support of the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent and threatening the unity and security of the country.

Zubair is originally from Solapur and currently works in a software company in Kalyani Nagar. He is married and has two children, and his family resides in the Kondwa area. Meanwhile, the ATS is thoroughly investigating the matter and is investigating whether Zubair had any links with Al-Qaeda members, why he had these materials and for what purpose. The police will also question his friend and examine his mobile and other electronic devices. It is also being investigated whether he was in contact with any other terrorist organisation. All these international numbers are important to Zubair and it is being speculated that he has terrorist connections and links. However, when questioned about these numbers, he gave vague answers that he did not know who they belonged to or what they were related to.

ATS officials said that investigations are being conducted to find out whether Zubair had any links with Al-Qaeda members and what was the purpose of this contact. We are also investigating why and for what purpose he had the Al-Qaeda material. His friend in his custody will be questioned and his mobile and other electronic devices will also be examined. It is also being investigated whether he came in contact with any other terrorist or not. Meanwhile, the ATS had earlier this month conducted search operations in different parts of the city. The operation was related to the investigation of an old ISIS module. At that time, suspected radical individuals were kept under surveillance. During this operation, 19 people were detained for questioning, but they were released after questioning. During these raids, the police have also seized some important documents along with electronic devices.

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