Mumbai Ganeshotsav: BMC cautions against the use of 13 bridges

Mumbai, Aug 27: The BMC has issued guidelines for the mandals ahead of Ganeshotsav. The BMC has listed 13 old and dilapidated bridges that must be avoided by the mandals.

The guidelines also caution citizens especially while taking out processions to bring idols during immersions. In the past the the Gokhale bride in Andheri and the Himalaya bridge at CSMT have crashed and hence the advisory was issued.

The BMC said that in case of the three other old bridges at Arthur Road, Byculla station and Chinchpokli the weight on them should not exceed 16 tonnes at any given point of time.

Most of the bridges are listed over the railway lines and also include the Ghatkopar Road overbridge. The guidelines have also included the Curry Road overbridge, Sane Guruji Marg, Marine Lines ROB, Bellasis ROB and Kennedy ROB. All these bridges listed have traffic moving currently on them.

"We are only cautioning citizens to be careful. This is a routine procedure and as these are decades-old bridges, we feel organisers should take care, Additional civic chief P Velrasu said.

The mandal organisers have said that they would exercise caution but it would be difficult to stop people from crowding especially because celebrations are happening after a gap of two years due to COVID-19.

We can only request the mandals not to hold large processions with songs and dance while using the bridges. But there is a lot of enthusiasm among the people and we cannot force them to follow each rule Naresh Dahibavkar, president of Brihanmumbai Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Samanvay Samiti said.