Officials say temporary measure adopted due to long-pending sewer work
Paver blocks used to fix the road near Pant Nagar post office. Pic/Satej Shinde
The BMC is now fixing the road along Pant Nagar in Ghatkopar East with paver blocks, around 17 months after the proposal for concreting the road was approved. Civic authorities have also repaired the road opposite the post office using paver blocks.
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According to officials, temporary repairs are currently being carried out as there is proposed work for strengthening the sewage system in the area. “The old sewage system needs to be strengthened due to the large number of redevelopment projects in the area,” said an official.
The BMC has already appointed a consultant for the project. “If we concreted the road we would have to dig it up again for sewer line repairs,” the official added. According to the official, some roads are in very poor condition and civic authorities are using paver blocks to fix these as a temporary solution to provide commuters with slightly better roads during monsoons.
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Local resident Deepak Jadhav, who has been constantly following up on the road repair, is unhappy with the BMC decision. “This is an example of unplanned governance. The proposal for road concretion was approved by the BMC in December 2021 and the work was supposed to commence in January 2022. However, the work did not start and later, the BMC decided to improve the sewage infrastructure.
Both works are undertaken by the BMC so how can they be caught unawares? What would civic authorities do if the concretion work had started on time,” Jadhav said. He further alleged that the BMC had stopped using paver blocks as they are not durable. “So what’s the guarantee that these paver blocks will last through the monsoon,” Jadhav said.
Activist Sachin Manjrekar said Pant Nagar is an area prone to waterlogging. “Every year there is waterlogging during the monsoon. The BMC is repairing these roads using paver blocks, but they won’t stay in place and will only cause more problems,” Manjrekar said.
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