What is the real hold-up with the opening of the Vasai east-west flyover? The MMRDA maintains that that bridge is "incomplete", but mid-day has found that except for minor barricading work on a nearly 100-m stretch, the bridge is ready.

The east-west Vasai flyover, which has been in the making for the last seven years. Pic/Hanif Patel

Besides, it has been learnt that the agency has already written to the chief minister's office, seeking a date on which Devendra Fadnavis can throw open the flyover. But, the CMO has been non-committal on giving an appointment, which is causing the needless delay.

When mid-day visited the spot on Saturday, we found the MMRDA's claim of work still underway at the bridge falling flat. Not a single worker was on the bridge - a clear indication that the bridge is ready for use. Besides, the road has been blacktopped, the lanes demarcated, the safety wall and the footpath painted, and signboards displaying speed limit instructions and directions erected.

All that the MMRDA has to show for proof of pending work are some barricades for safety wall stacked together on a small stretch of the flyover, a board that reads that the 'work on the safety wall is yet to be completed and the bridge will be thrown open to the public once the job is done', machinery and a few iron rods left on the bridge.

'Need 15 more days'
Engineers working on the bridge claimed that 15 days of work is still pending. Sumant Ghodke, junior engineer, said, "We have not opened the bridge because the work on the parapet wall as well as erecting railway protective screens (barricades) is incomplete." Ghodke further said work on expansion joints and bridge barring is also pending. "We will open the bridge only after all these pending works are completed. For us, public safety is top priority."