MUMBAI, March 19 -- The standing committee of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday held back a proposal to sanction a cost escalation for the extension work of Mrinaltai Gore Flyover in Goregaon. According to official estimates, the project cost in the second phase escalated from Rs.197 crores in 2018 to Rs.247 crores now. Between 2018 and 2023 the cost went up to Rs.240 crore over two reviews, due to factors such as space constraints that had not been factored in the original design. On Wednesday, the civic administration approached the standing committee with a demand for an escalation of approximately Rs.7.9 crore. Standing committee chairperson Prabhakar Shinde ordered that the proposal be held back and considered only after a site visit. While a part of the crucial flyover connecting the Western Express Highway (WEH) to SV Road opened in 2016, the deadline to complete the extended arm is April 2026. The project was contracted to M/s MEPL-Gyan JV in December 2018 and was supposed to be completed in two years. The administration backed its argument for sanctioning the cost escalation on Wednesday to cover additional costs such as surfacing work, painting, setting up noise barriers (since residential buildings have sprung up on both sides of the flyover), setting up road signs, marking yellow and white signs on the road, and an increase in consultant fees. The additional charges were also attributed to the changes in the project's design. The fee granted to the technical consultant M/s TPF engineering had risen from Rs.2.23 crore in 2023 to Rs.2.30 crore now, while the fee for another consultant, M/s Construma Consultancy Pvt Ltd, had risen from Rs.66.98 lakh to Rs.69 lakh. Other factors like rise in GST and taxation, also added to the cost. Calling attention to the project delay, Shailesh Phanse, corporator from Versova, said, "While the stretch from the WEH to SV Road has opened, the one-kilometer extension from SV Road to the Oshiwara crematorium is stuck. The project was supposed to be completed in 2024. Will they now be able to complete it in less than two months?" Preeti Satam, corporator from Goregaon questioned BMC's laxity in addressing design changes in the bridge promptly. "Why did BMC take four years to realize this? If the co-consultant designed it wrongly, shouldn't they pay for the delay in costs? Why should taxpayers pay for their mistakes," she asked. In a similar vein, Ashraf Azmi, Congress group leader from Kurla, said, "Why can't BMC get small jobs on the flyover done by another contractor? We are returning to the same contractor despite the fact that they have been delaying the project. No major technical inputs are required at this stage, and anyone can paint and complete the resurfacing work." Amey Gole, group leader of Shiv Sena in BMC, also questioned the system used to hire consultants and asked "if BMC engineers could at some point develop the engineering expertise of experts from VJTI" to aid seamless consultations....