Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) is planning to conduct a structural audit of 17 bridges and flyovers that are 20 years old, in the wake of the Kund Mala bridge collapse in Pune district’s Maval taluka last month and following directives from the Maharashtra Government.
Makrand Nikam, City Engineer, PCMC, said, ”Pimpri-Chinchwad has in all 46 overbridges and flyovers located on railway tracks, rivers, junctions, and highways. Of these 46, 17 are more than 20 years old, while 29 are less than 20 years old. We are going to conduct a structural audit of these 17 bridges and flyovers.”
According to officials, the PCMC constructed the industrial city’s first flyover, the Mayor Madhurkar Pawale flyover at Nigdi, in 2004. The oldest bridge in Pimpri-Chinchwad is the Harris Bridge in Dapodi, constructed in 1895, during British rule. The Pune Municipal Corporation built a parallel bridge in 1987, when Pimpri-Chinchwad was under that civic body. Dapodi came under the PCMC in 1996, and the civic body constructed another parallel bridge in 2019.
The Indira Gandhi flyover in Pimpri was constructed in 1983 and the bridge in Chinchwad in 1978.
”The structural audit of Pimpri, Chinchwad, and Dapodi bridges has already been done,” an official said.
Makrand Nikam said the civic body would appoint a contractor to conduct the structural audit.
”We have informed the district collectorate about the process of structural audit we are starting,” an official said.
The PCMC administration also said they had launched a survey of the bridges and flyovers located across the industrial area in the wake of the Kund Mala bridge collapse.
“This was done as per the directives of the government,” the official said.
