For maintenance: 'Bridges to bear contact nos. of KMDA engineers'

kolkata: City's Mayor Firhad Hakim has made an interesting announcement saying that the names and contact numbers of Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) engineers will be inscribed on the bridges in the city so that the local people can directly call the engineers if any issue relating to a bridge crops up or it develops any crack.

Hakim said that a wide crack does not occur in a day. A hairline crack occurs initially which gradually widens.

Sometimes local people spot any such hairline crack if it appears on the bridge. If such incidents occur the people can immediately call the engineer to draw their attention.

The KMDA will take over maintenance of all city bridges, especially those located along outfall canals. Hakim who is also the chairman of KMDA said that they have to fix responsibilities in case of maintenance of bridges.

"The KMDA has to display the names of executive engineers who will be assigned to look after specific bridges constructed by the KMDA or by other agencies of the state government. Personal numbers will be put on display for the people who can directly call the executive engineers in case of emergency," Hakim said.

Mayor also said that one KMDA engineer will be assigned for one bridge. He mentioned the Majerhat bridge saying that he knew that port authorities set up the bridge but earlier he did not know who maintains the bridge. After Majerhat bridge collapse incident, the KMDA started health check up of all the city bridges

It may be mentioned here that at Wednesday's monthly meeting Councillor Meenakshi Ganguly drew the attention of the KMC saying that two bridges under her ward are in bad shape. She said that in ward 12 and ward 13 there is one bridge in each ward. Both these bridges are in bad condition.