Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to concretize all roads to make them pothole-free before monsoon. Accordingly, more than 224 km of the 2,050 km of road work has been done. In addition, cement concretization of 397 km of roads was undertaken.
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The BMC had set a target of completing 40 percent of the road works before the monsoon. However, 25 percent of the concretization works have been completed so far. Senior civic officials said they would stop the work before the monsoon and give priority to leveling roads and plugging potholes. The civic body aims to make all roads cement concretization (CC) in Mumbai so that there are no frequent pothole problem. However, before this monsoon, there were 2,050 km of roads in Mumbai, of which only 50 percent have been completed, a senior official said.
"The civic body should be strict with contractors as taxpayers' money is involved in it, it is the civic body's fault that 25 percent of the work is yet to be completed despite tendering for roads a year ago. The civic body should submit a status report of the roads in this regard at the earliest." - Makarand Narvekar, former corporator, BJP
The tender was floated only in January 2023
1) A total of 698 works of concretization will be carried out by the municipal corporation, out of which 365 works have been taken up.
2) More than 1,200 km of roads have been concretized. The work of cement concreting 397 km of roads in the city, eastern and western suburbs of Mumbai is currently underway and a tender for this work was floated in January 2023 itself.
3) Contracts worth Rs 6,000 crore have been awarded to five companies for this purpose, but due to various reasons, the civic body was forced to cancel the contract, and the process was delayed.
While concretization works are underway in the eastern and western suburbs, work on rainwater lines, new water lines, and utility lines under the roads has to be shifted elsewhere. These works are being completed on priority and concretisation is being done. Also, for road works, a no-objection certificate has to be obtained from other authorities, including traffic police. It's being done on a priority basis. Due to all these difficulties, the concretization work in the suburbs is going on at a slow pace.
Work will resume from September to end after the monsoon. The tender for concretization of 400 km of roads in the second phase of roads in the eastern and western suburbs has received a response.