Mumbai: Iqbal Singh Chahal, the commissioner of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), has announced that the BMC's road department has successfully completed the cement concretization of 158 kilometers of roads in Mumbai over the past one and a half years. This achievement has raised the total count of cement concrete roads in Mumbai to 1148 kilometers.
Traditionally, BMC has faced criticism each year for the presence of potholes on its roads. Citizens, media representatives, and social activists have all voiced their dissatisfaction with BMC's road maintenance efforts, and the Bombay High Court has also regularly reprimanded BMC on this issue. To address these concerns, BMC decided in 2017 to undertake the cement concretization of all roads in Mumbai.
According to BMC records, the jurisdiction of BMC encompasses around 2000 kilometers of roads. Prior to the year 2022, BMC had completed the concretization of 990 kilometers of these roads.
BMC's extensive efforts in road concretisation
In his Independence Day speech, BMC Commissioner Chahal stated, "BMC is making earnest efforts to ensure road quality. Presently, there are ongoing road concretization projects spanning 265 kilometers in Mumbai, out of which 158 kilometers have been successfully completed. These roads include 59 kilometers within the city, 64 kilometers in the Western Suburbs, and 35 kilometers in the Eastern Suburbs."
CCTVs to monitor road quality
Chahal further explained, "CCTV cameras have been installed at the construction sites to monitor road quality. Senior officers can oversee the ongoing work through these cameras. BMC also inspects the materials used for road construction and conducts 50 different tests in its laboratory to confirm material quality."
In addition to these efforts, since the establishment of the Shinde-Fadnavis government, BMC announced the concretization of an additional 400 kilometers of roads in Mumbai in September 2022. BMC has confirmed that work related to this announcement is already in progress.
