BMC shifts to advanced technology to combat potholes before monsoon hits
Potholed road in Bandra. File pic/Sameer Markande
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to use another technology for pre-monsoon road repair. This year, BMC will use mastic asphalt technology to repair bad patches.
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Additional Municipal Commissioner Abhijeet Bangar said, “We have invited tenders for pre-monsoon road repair. We are using mastic asphalt for pre-monsoon road repairs. The work will start soon.” “We have invited a tender for zone level to appoint a contractor for pre-monsoon road repair,” added Bangar. BMC officially claims that in the last few years, mastic asphalt has been used for road repair and junction repair. The technology is useful and proves its strength, officials added. The pre-monsoon work is mainly used to reduce potholes during the monsoon. “We are going to spend more than R100 crore,” officials said.
In the last 13 years, BMC has used around five various technologies for pothole preparation. Like jet patching machine technology during 2010-11, Austrian and Israeli asphalt mix, rapid hardening concrete, and reactive asphalt. While for pre-monsoon work, BMC mainly uses hot mix asphalt. “For pothole repairing, hot mix and cold mix technologies are traditional technologies. Cold mix asphalt is mainly used if there is continued rain,” officials added.
According to the records in 2011, the HC-appointed Standing Technical Advisory Committee suggested BMC use mastic asphalt for pothole-free bridges and flyovers. At the beginning of the monsoon last year, BMC used reactive asphalt and rapid hardening concrete to repair the potholes. However, due to limitations in the use of these technologies, mastic asphalt technology was used later.