28 January,2016 10:52 PM IST | | A Correspondent
In what will come as great news for motorists, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has invited bids to improve 122 junctions in Mumbai at a cost of Rs 200 crore
In what will come as great news for motorists, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has invited bids to improve 122 junctions in Mumbai at a cost of Rs 200 crore.
The civic body hopes to complete the work before monsoon. The work will also include replacing paver blocks on these junctions with mastic asphalt.
The BMC had recently taken a decision not to have paver blocks at any junction in the city. Besides, it had also declared that not a single new road in the city will now be made of paver blocks. Further, the civic body had earlier this month invited bids for the improvement of 122 city junctions. Of these, 52 are in the island city while the rest are in the suburbs -- 45 in the western suburbs and another 25 in the eastern suburbs. The total cost will be around Rs 200 crore.
Some of the important junctions that will be improved include Manish Market-Crawford Road junction, Portuguese Church junction and the junction behind Siddhivinayak Temple.
"Improvement works include replacing the paver blocks with mastic asphalt. The paver blocks have come off at most of these junctions. So instead of patching it up, we are replacing them completely with mastic asphalt. Besides, trenching, laying of utilities and storm water drain works ahead of monsoon will also be undertaken simultaneously. This makes sure roads are not dug up again," a senior civic official said.
The bids for island city close on February 3, while those for the suburbs close on February 12. After that, contractors will be shortlisted to be finalised by the standing committee. The entire process will take about two months. "We will try to do maximum work before monsoon," he said.
