MUMBAI: The BMC has already mooted the idea of civic police, and now Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is crying hoarse for them.
MMRDA’s Rs 15-crore project of installing global signages on city roads has received a setback.
Forty-seven signboards along the Western Express Highway were stolen in the last two days, resulting in a Rs 30 lakh loss. Anxious officials are seeking civic police to guard the new street furniture on which crores are being spent.
Thirty-two signboards along the Jogeshwari-Dahisar stretch and 15 between Bandra and the domestic airport have gone missing. Both the signboard packages were installed by Bajaj Electricals.
Officials are wondering how the tough job of removing the rivets from the backframe of panels weighing 10 kg went unnoticed by cops. Sources said the MMRDA was also probing whether the act was a result of competition between contractors to secure the job.
MMRDA officials have filed an FIR with the police. Senior officials also met Satish Mathur, joint commissioner (traffic), on Tuesday.
Contractors will do on-site welding to place an entire metal sheet on the sign boards and will place plain-clothes policemen to secure them. “SUch thefts are peculiar to Mumbai. We have never seen this happening anywhere in India,” said R Ramana, transportation planner, MMRDA. MMRDA officials said at least 5 per cent of the funds spent on infrastructure should be allocated for maintaining security.
“There is a need for highway patrolling, as it is done on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. Civic cops can be used for protecting the new street furniture,” said a senior official.
