In the wake of the Gokhale bridge delays, Additional Municipal Commissioner Abhijit Bangar outlines how the BMC plans to avoid repeat blunders. From drafting SOPs for all bridge works to improving coordination with railways and tackling rehabilitation bottlenecks, Bangar tells mid-day what’s changing after one of the city’s most delayed but high-impact infrastructure projects.

What has BMC learned from the Gokhale bridge experience?
We now plan to create a standard operating procedure (SOP) for all future bridge projects. A detailed schedule will be prepared, and traffic will only be stopped once we are confident of meeting deadlines. For example, in the Sion bridge case, a delay in shifting high-tension power lines after traffic was halted caused major setbacks. We aim to avoid such scenarios.