The Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI) was hired by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to offer technical advice on the Andheri-Ghatkopar link road last year. Based on the VJTI’s advice, the BMC has reconstructed a portion of the road.
The VJTI’s fees for the technical advice (Rs 10 lakhs) was discussed at the standing committee meeting on Aug 25.
The Andheri-Ghatkopar link road was constructed in 2016 following the damage caused by the nearby Metro construction. However, cracks started to appear on the 4.3-kilometre stretch in less than four years.
Chief Engineer of the Roads Department, Rajan Talkar said, “The road was damaged and it could not be closed due to heavy traffic. So it was rebuilt by laying another level of concrete in 2016. But some cracks developed on it. The technical advice had been taken from VJTI to repair the patches.”
Talkar went on to say that traffic wasn’t impacted by the reconstruction, adding that nearly 80 per cent of the work is complete.
The company that completed the reconstruction, Construma Consultant Private Limited, said that their designs were reliable. This led to the BMC hiring the VJTI to inspect the sites on March 16, 2020. The subsequent technical report provided by the VJTI finally allowed the civic body to undertake reconstruction on a portion of the road.