Mumbai: Despite tall promises to Bombay HC, no road repaired yet

The BMC is yet to start resurfacing city roads even after it assured the court on September 30 that it will complete the work within three months. Junior civic officials said they issued work orders a week ago, but are not getting permission from the traffic police. Both the police and senior civic officials, however, assured that the work will start soon. The civic body floated tenders to resurface 500 roads. It then issued work orders for around 360 roads on and after October 21, but no work has started yet.

As pothole-ridden roads made Mumbaikars' life miserable this monsoon, the Bombay High Court had asked Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation chief Iqbal Singh Chahal for explanation. Chahal had on September 30 told the court that while the long-term plan of converting all city roads into cement concrete will require 2.5 years, the roads in bad condition would be resurfaced within three months.

Also read: Mumbai: BMC scraps tenders to concretise 400 km roads; cites poor response

A pothole-ridden stretch of Link Road in Andheri. File pic

"We have already issued work orders for around 360 roads across the city. The contractors and machinery is ready and the process of getting permission from the traffic police is going on. It is taking time, but we cannot start work without it," said an official from the roads department.

Additional BMC Commissioner P Velrasu said, "Out of 16 tenders, 10 tenders have been finalised. Work orders have been issued and work will start this week. The remaining work of roads will be finalised within this week. Whenever we need, traffic police always cooperate, so we will get permission." Rajvardhan Sinha, joint commissioner of police (traffic), told mid-day, "We have already given permission for more than 1,000 roads to the BMC. The process takes 10 to 15 days as we need to visit the site and assess the traffic situation." He added that it is an ongoing process as the department receives new proposals seeking permission every day, making it difficult to gauge the exact number of pending proposals.

List of bad roads BMC shared with HC

South Mumbai
Mumbadevi Marg
V N Naik Marg
T B Kadam Marg
Balaram Bapu Khedekar Road
T J Road

Western suburbs
Tagore Road
Kherwadi Road
Aarey-Marol Maroshi Road
P L Deshpande Road
N S Road No 4
Aarey Road
Bhoomi Park Marina Enclave road
Samata Nagar Road
Appasaheb Sidhaye Marg
Ramkunwar Thakur Marg

Eastern suburbs
M N Road
D P Road No. 9
Shivaji Nagar Road No. 15
Sonapur Lane
Dargah Road
Bhandup Village Road