Road to a hotter Mumbai

CLEAN cement roads within the city and across Western and Eastern Express Highway are adding to the temperature rise, say BMC officials, 37 degrees at the start of summer in March.

Road to a hotter Mumbai

CLEAN cement roads within the city and across Western and Eastern Express Highway are adding to the temperature rise, say BMC officials, 37 degrees at the start of summer in March.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) are concretising and maintaining nearly 400 km of cement roads in Mumbai. However, these roads are not as absorbent as asphalt roads and reflect the sun's rays back into the atmosphere, sending temperatures up.

The MMRDA has already concretised roads on both WEH and EEH, many link roads and will concretise the entire Bandra Kurla Complex. Similarly the BMC too is in the process of replacing asphalt roads with Cement Concrete (CC) roads. It has already replaced nearly 400 km out of 1,940 km of road with concrete. A BMC official said, "CC roads don't give in during rains but on the other hand asphalt roads absorb heat faster."

Experts feel trees can make a difference in reducing the heat emitted by roads, buildings and other surroundings. Dev Niyogi, an expert in climate changes said, "Concrete roads with some green zones are perhaps better than black tar roads to reduce heating."

Experts studying the phenomenon of rising temperatures feel that global warming and rise in temperature are two different things, but the tall rises and lesser number of trees add to rise in Celsius

Rakesh Kumar, senior scientist, NEERI said, "Both asphalt and concrete roads fluxes heat during night, but concrete roads gives more discomfort to people around than those travelling on tar roads."

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