Mumbai: It took a death for BMC to fix road

The death of a 34yearold on the slippery uneven surface of a newly built road has finally awoken the BMC from deep slumber It started repair work on the GhatkoparMankhurd Link Road GMLR on Wednesday morning It has started milling mdash removing the top layer of asphalt without disturbing the underlying subbase to lay new asphalt mdash and will place more rumblers to curb the speed of vehiclesCCTV cameras and signages will also be put installed on the flyoverSince the inauguration on August 1 GMLR had remained controversial as accidents started to occur on it from Day 1 Even Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray who inaugurated it had pointed to its uneven surface Most of the accidents were due to skidding of vehicles On August 30 Mahkhurd resident Yusuf Khan who was riding his friends twowheeler lost his life when the bike skidded and he sustained injuries on the head Demands to repair the faulty surface began again from citizens after this incidentVehicular traffic has been stopped on the northbound lane of the GMLR for repairs PicRajesh GuptaActing hastily on the demands BMC closed down the vehicular traffic of the north bound lane from Ghatkopar towards Mankhurd and started milling work ldquoWe will remove the top layer of asphalt to a specified and even depth without disturbing the underlying subbase This will make the surface a bit more sturdy reduce skidding of vehicles said an officer from BMCBMC in its official statement said ldquoWe have decided to take some measures to control the vehicular speed on GMLR The road has been built with mastic asphalt which has been used as per the standards of Indian Road Congress IRC for light as well as heavy vehicles The flyover has been given a speed limit of 50kmhr but motorists overspeed on it resulting in accidents Therefore we have decided to conduct road milling to reduce the speed furtherrdquoAlso ReadA Slippery Slope Man dies BMC rushes to fix GhatkoparMankhurd Link RoadldquoWe have started the work and it will take 7 to 8 days to finish on both the lanes Currently the Northbound lane has been taken up for milling We felt it is necessary to reduce the speed of vehicles on the flyover as overspeeding is causing incidents There is no problem with the surface as it is built as per the standardsrdquo said Sathish Thosar chief engineer BridgesA senior traffic official said Our department had proposed exactly these corrections on August 5 and asked BMC to take all these measures to avoid any fatality Finally the BMC has decided to do so If this had happened earlier we could have saved a life and monetary loss to many people whose vehicles got damaged on this flyoverrdquo Officials also expressed the need for patrolling by local police on the bridge to avoid theft of nutbolts and other metal parts to avoid any untoward incident in futureMohammed Islam Khan father of Yusuf said ldquoI am happy that BMC decided to work on the surface But what about the culprits behind the faulty road BMC says accidents are happening due to overspeeding to hide their fault This is not done It took a life for BMC to act and listen to the demands of peoplerdquoAdditional precautions to be implemented Speedbreakers to be placed on both the lanes at distance of 500 metres CCTV cameras to be installed Signages regarding speed limit and speedbreakers to be displayed Additional rumblers