Mumbai: More than half of city's roads to be under construction for next 3 years

The BMC on Wednesday laid out its plan of converting over 1,000-km of asphalt roads to concrete, starting this October. This will leave half of the city's roads under construction for the next three years at least. Former corporators and activists, however, said the target is impossible to achieve, considering the poor progress so far. They alleged that it will turn into yet another scam, with officials pocketing crores.

The civic body has announced Rs 5,800 crore for the conversion of 400 km of asphalt roads to cement concrete (CC) this year, along with the ongoing work on 236 km of roads. Of the proposed work on 400 km of roads, 50 km is in the island city, 75 km in the eastern suburbs and 275 km in the western suburbs. The work on the remaining 423 km of roads will be taken up next year.

The BMC has been working on the conversion of asphalt roads, with a 2,050-km network in the city and its suburbs, to CC for the past few years. However, the construction work is progressing at only 200 km per year, with work on only 990 km of roads completed so far. Various issues, like construction of drains, shifting of 16 utility lines, coordination with various BMC departments, ward offices and many external authorities like MTNL, BSNL, gas, internet, etc., have been attributed to the slow pace of work.

Also read: Mumbai: Roads will be pothole-free in 2 years, says BMC

About 1,060 km of asphalt roads remain to be converted to concrete. Representation pic/Anurag Ahire

"It took a lot of time and many small roads remained dug up for months. Even traffic police do not give permission for all the roads at the same time, citing impact on vehicular movement. These facts are known to BMC officials, corporators and even to the common public," said a former BMC official. Despite the fact, BMC has planned to go ahead with an ambitious project of converting all the remaining roads - 1,060 km - to CC within two years.

32 months too short

According to the tenders floated on Wednesday, the work should be completed within 24 months, excluding the four months of monsoon. Even if the contractors and the BMC manage to do work within the timeframe, the project will go on for the next 32 months, i.e. until 2025.

A BMC official said that if everything falls in place, up to 1 km of road takes four months to construct. Several former corporators and activists said the BMC announced the plan without giving too much thought into the timeframe.

Vinod Mishra, former corporator and group leader of the BJP in the BMC, said, "The BMC is in action mode without any planning. The civic officials should study other city models, to understand how to construct proper roads with permanent footpaths. Otherwise, they will end up delivering faulty roads like the previous ones."

Scope for corruption

"It is just another way to fill the pockets of BMC officials. The officials should learn a lesson from the road scam during the tenure of former BMC commissioner Ajoy Mehta, which exposed many loopholes in the construction. The current officials will float tenders of crores of rupees, but who will be responsible for the roads? Before starting such a huge project, the BMC must publish white paper on the condition of cement concrete roads that have been constructed so far," said Anil Galgali, an activist. Ravi Raja, former corporator and leader of opposition in the BMC, said, "The BMC babus are happy with issuing new bids as they see a scope for serving their own vested interests. There is no accountability here. The BMC has already issued a work order of Rs 2,000 crore and not more than 10 roads have been completed so far. Now, they have invited bids of Rs 5,800 crore."

Ulhas Mahale, deputy municipal commissioner who is in charge of the roads department, said, "We have sought more machinery to speed up the work. After awarding the work order, we will ask all the service providers to coordinate to shift utilities into one duct. There should be a proper system to execute such a huge project." He added that the BMC would give the full list of roads to the traffic police and discuss with them the plan, so that there is no hindrance to the city traffic.

"All roads will be in CC and work orders will be issued before next May for 823 km of roads," said P Velarasu, additional commissioner, BMC. When asked how many kilometres of roads will be dug up simultaneously, he said it would depend on the traffic planning and permissions from the Traffic police department.

200
Avg length of roads (in km) converted to cement yearly so far