Mumbai: BMC to spend Rs 84 crore on pre-emptive strike against potholes ahead of monsoon

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The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will spend R84 crore on repairing bad patches as part of pre-monsoon work. The civic body plans to accomplish this task by June 15. According to a BMC official, this year marks the first time the BMC is identifying bad patches in advance and this will help to prevent the formation of potholes during the monsoon.

"Additional Municipal Commissioner P Velrasu instructed all that the assistant municipal commissioner of each ward identify bad patches and ask the executive engineers of the road department to repair them. The BMC has decided to complete this task by June 15," an official stated. "We will use reactive asphalt and rapid-hardening concrete for better results," said a BMC official.

According to official documents, the BMC will spend around Rs 2.75 crore to Rs 5 crore on such areas in a ward. The cost of the work is Rs 4,000 per square metre. A civic official said, "The BMC repairs potholes every year under pre-monsoon work. But this year we have decided to repair bad patches."

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According to officials, P Velrasu instructed officials not to exceed the quantity of material allocated as the material allotted is more than what ward officers had demanded. If more material is needed, approval must be sought."Potholes mostly occur on stretches of asphalt roads whose upper layer is damaged. Now we will identify such patches and repair them before the monsoon," an official said.

Mocha to delay monsoon onset over Andaman

On Sunday, Cyclone Mocha smashed over the northwest coast of Myanmar with winds of over 270 km per hour, becoming the strongest tropical cyclone in the north Indian Ocean since 1982. Due to the phenomenon, monsoon onset over the Andaman islands will be delayed by a few days from the normal date of May 15. "The system should delay the monsoon arrival by at least four to five days. However, the Arabian Sea branch will not be affected as far as the arrival date is concerned. A few days of delay is likely over the Arabian Sea; however, this cannot be attributed to the cyclone," said Rajesh Kapadia of Vagaries of the Weather, a popular private weather blog. Meanwhile, the IMD said the heatwave would continue. "The temperature is likely to rise by two to three degrees Celsius in many parts of Maharashtra from Wednesday.