The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) lacklustre approach is causing inconvenience to hundreds of commuters using the Himalaya Bridge at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT). While the work on an escalator to access the bridge has finally started, it was held up for months only because the civic body failed to release Rs 1.29 crore to the contractor. Citizens feel that the BMC could have easily started the work earlier as the funds released were not a big amount for the civic body.

Thousands of railway commuters have been forced to use the staircase of the Himalaya foot overbridge (FOB) as the BMC failed to get the pending escalator installed even eight months after the bridge was opened. The delay was not due to technical reasons but came only due to the failure to clear the additional cost of the escalator, which was added to the plan after issuing work orders for the bridge. “It should hardly be a week’s job now to attach an escalator as it doesn’t require any additional construction,” said a BMC official.