Mumbai: Aaditya Thackeray raises questions over concretisation of city roads, seeks answers from BMC chief

Aaditya Thackeray. File Pic

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Tuesday raised concerns blatant irregularities in road concretisation projects worth Rs 6,080 crore in Mumbai and accused the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation of going absolutely silent after he raised the issue.

Thackeray sent a two-page letter to BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, raising 10 questions, which he called crucial for Mumbaikars, regarding the concretisation of 400 km of roads in the metropolis and urged him to respond to them.

Faced with a deluge of complaints about potholes during the monsoon months, the BMC last year decided to concretise several road stretches across the city.

Thackeray has sought to know whether the work orders have been issued at the competitive bid price (average 8 per cent above the estimated price) or at par rates and if the bidding process has been followed.

He asked the BMC chief to provide the number of road stretches where actual work has started after the work orders were issued. Whether or not the proposed 10 per cent advance mobilisation money has been given to the contractors, he sought to know.

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In the absence of corporators, as the term of the BMC House ended in March 2022, Thackeray requested the civic chief, who has been made the administrator, to share details as to who proposed and approved the concretisation work. He also asked about the revised timeline of the project.

Without answering these issues, it would mean that it consents that it has no answers and it's possibly a huge scam by the opaque administration, dictated by the UD (urban development) department headed by the illegal CM himself, reads the letter, shared by Thackeray on social media.

Highlighting that the questions are crucial for Mumbaikars, Thackeray said that the work was handed out to five contractors in a manner that seems like a method of cartels, in absolute secrecy.

The money for the road works is hard-earned by the citizens and they deserve transparency and accountability from the BMC administration, Thackeray said, pointing out that the core of the mismanagement of the project lies with the BMC administration as much as the contractors.

Asking whether there will be any introspection on this anti-democratic administration and brash fashion of spending public money, without checks, balances and need, he said on Twitter "without these answers, it will be clear that the entire road tenders process was fraudulent".

The entire road network in Mumbai runs up to nearly 2,000 km of which 900 km has already been concretised.

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