PMC to start strengthening work on 60 bridges

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) will soon begin strengthening work of around 60 bridges across the city, said officials on Monday.
Bridge strengthening involves reinforcing existing bridges to improve their structural integrity and capacity, often to meet updated load requirements or repair damage.
The PMC had already done the safety audit of the 98 bridges which include bridges on all the rivers, flyovers and railway over bridges in the city. Of the 98 bridges, strengthening work on 38 bridges has been completed in the first phase.
The move comes after four people died and 51 were injured when an old narrow bridge over the River Indrayani near Talegaon in Pune district.
Naval Kishore Ram, PMC commissioner, said, 'PMC has done strengthening work on 38 bridges. We will audit the remaining bridges and start strengthening work soon.'
Sandip Patil, head, PMC planning department, said, 'Two years ago we did the safety audit of all the bridges. We have even carried out the strengthening work of some bridges which are essential in the first phase. We will now undertake the second phase very soon.'
Back in 2017 after the collapse of another bridge on the Savitri River in Mahad, PMC had presented the report of a structural audit conducted last year of the seven bridges built during the British era.
Shrikant Gaikwad, PMC engineer, said, 'The work was done at the cost of ₹12.48 crore.'
The PMC had divided the bridges into two categories which include heritage bridges that were over constructed before 1952 and those built after 1952. Some bridges are very old in Pune which include Lakadi Bridge, Shivaji Bridge, Bund Garden Bride and Holkar Bridge. PMC had closed the Bund Garden bridge for traffic movement and only kept it open for pedestrians.

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