A Review on Structural Audit Report of Oldest Bridges in Pune City

Abstract

Pune, with its twin rivers, is a city that has a smattering of bridge, linking either side of the rivers. The history of bridges in Pune dates back to the British era, when they built the Fitzgerald Bridge, or Bund Garden Bridge, over the Mula-Mutha river. Pune has developed greatly since then, and over the years more bridges have come up. But what’s more significant are the parallel bridges which can be found all over Pune along the banks of the Mula-Mutha rivers, including Baba Bhide bridge, Gadgil bridge or Z bridge, Sambhaji bridge, Lakdi Pul or Shivaram Mhatre bridge and SM Joshi bridge. In total, there are 36 bridges in Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) limits, of which, 22 bridges are across the rivers, and 14 are flyovers and rail bridges. Currently, Pune is one of the fastest-growing cities in the Asian-Pacific and this has been true for some time. Between 1991 and 2001, the city grew by 40%, increasing from 1.6 million to 2.5 million. The decadal growth rate of Pune for the last 40 years has been at least 40% and it's estimated that population will hit 5.6 million by 2031 if this trend continues. The Pune Municipal Corporation has found that about 40% of the city's population was living in slums in 2017. The life of these bridges has expired in keeping with the deadline set while constructing them. It is always a threat when we would continue to use these bridges for traffic. In These paper Beware, Brit-built oldest bridges of Pune are in precarious state as per Structural Audit report recommends urgent repairs of ten bridges in Pune, but work is yet to begin owing to red tape.