Mumbai: After a gap of two years, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is finally ready to undertake the much-needed construction work of Hancock Bridge near Sandhurst Road railway station.
The civic body will build the bridge at a cost of Rs 41.31 crore. The work is expected to be completed in 19 months.The Hancock Bridge was dismantled by the Central Railway (CR) in January 2016 after proclaiming it as “dangerous”.
Ever since, there has been growing clamour for constructing a bridge as several track-crossing accidents have occurred near Sandhurst Road railway station.
For a long time, construction work was mired in controversy; first, due to the contractor and later, owing to the GST dispute. In May 2016, the BMC awarded contracts for four bridges, including the Hancock Bridge, to two firms that were facing a police investigation for their alleged involvement in a road scam. However, an activist filed a PIL in the Bombay high court, challenging the contracts on grounds that both contractors were tainted.
The HC then cancelled the contracts in “the larger public interest”, prompting the BMC to re-invite tenders. However, one of the contractors, J. Kumar Infra, moved the apex court, which granted the firm interim relief.
However, after the green signal given by the Supreme Court, the BMC decided to re-tender the work, keeping the Goods and Services Tax (GST) component in mind as previous tenders did not include the GST component.
In September last year however, the state government asked the BMC to cancel all those tenders, where GST was not considered in the final costing.
