MUMBAI: The BMC has filed an FIR against a contractor of the Western Railway for allegedly digging up a footpath near Pratishtha Bhavan on Maharshi Karve Road. The digging was carried out as part of the work on a foot over bridge (FOB). However, the work was being done without any permission from it, the BMC said. The civic body ceases digging work on roads and footpaths during monsoon.
“We have also issued a ‘stop work’ notice to the contractor.The contractor had excavated an area of about 15 metres by 5 metres on the footpath. If the railways wanted to carry out some work, they should have sought permission from the BMC. We will recover the expenditure for repairing the footpath from the contractor,” said a BMC A ward official. BMC A- Ward officer Jay More confirmed that an FIR had been filed.
The BMC administration had earlier set a deadline of April-end for permitting any kind of road digging or excavation of road for concretisation work, except in case of an emergency, in view of monsoon and the inconvenience likely to be caused to motorists and pedestrians. The BMC had recently issued instructions to file a complaint with the police, if instances of unauthorized digging were found.