Chembur Tragedy Engineers Association Revocation Suspension

A day after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) suspended three civic officials from M/West ward over the incident in which a large peepal tree fell on a school van killing 11-year-old Vihan Srivastava, Mumbai’s Municipal Engineer Association has called for withdrawal of the suspension of the engineers from the civic roads department terming it ‘suspension without justification’.

In a letter to Municipal Commissioner Ashwini Bhide, association’s representative Navnath Ghadge on Thursday said inspection of the site shows the tree was uprooted by heavy downpour. Ghadge said many other trees were uprooted across the city.

Late on Wednesday, the civic body suspended three officials, including an assistant superintendent of garden and tree department, and a sub-engineer and an assistant engineer of the civic roads department. The action came in light of the tragedy along Chembur’s Road no. 11 where a large peepal tree collapsed on a school van ferrying 12 students on Tuesday evening.

According to the BMC inquiry, the excavation works along Road no. 11 had been flagged at least twice — in April 2025 and January 2026 — by the civic tree and garden cell after inspections showed the road works had impacted the health of tree roots.

However, a day later, the municipal engineers’ association called for the revocation of the suspension of Arun Munde and Yogesh Parte.

“The said accident-affected tree is at least 50 years old and the RCC work to divert rainwater through a rainwater drain was done without causing any damage to the roots of the tree in March 2025, before the last monsoon, by the contractor M/s Gawar Construction Ltd and under the supervision of M/s Mahimtura Consultants Pvt Ltd,” said the letter.