Expect no respite from your bumpy ride till May 2015 as the BMC is repairing over 200 roads across the City simultaneously. After talking to city experts and officials, and surveying various corners of the City, Free Press Journal, found that the civic body is yet to live up to its promise of smooth roads even after spending nearly Rs.1,500 cr. Pictures by B L Soni
Mumbai: While the Prime Minister has shown Indians the dream of building new smart-cities in the country, the residents of Mumbai, the
country’s financial capital, will continue to struggle for something as basic as a hassle-free commute. This is because 224 roads are under improvement in all parts of the city and will see work at least until May 2015. These works, to the tune of thousands of crores, include important roads such as Marine Drive, Bhulabhai Desai Road, CST, etc.
After several public interest litigations over the last few years, additional municipal commissioner SVR Srinivas created a three-year long master-plan for the city’s roads, under which roads were classified into the ones which need immediate repairs, the ones which can be made better and the ones whose work can be deferred until later. Eventually, the civic Roads and Traffic department asked information from the ward offices, which did a survey and prepared a list of roads falling into all three categories. This process was completed earlier this year and a budgetary allocation of Rs 2,309 crore was made for the year 2014-15. However, in a recent revelation, it was found that Rs 1,470 crore of the department’s annual budget was unutilized. This has caused activists to ask whether the repairs were rushed since the BMC only has three months to spend the remainder of their budget.
[alert type=”e.g. warning, danger, success, info” title=””]Commute in Mumbai has become a pain with 224 roads undergoing improvement[/alert]
According to sources from the civic Roads and Traffic department, 89 roads in the island city, 95 in Western suburbs and about 40 in the Eastern suburbs are under improvement, which means they, or parts of them, are being constructed. Work may also include laying of utilities such as water pipelines, storm water drains pipes, sewerage pipelines as well as concretization and laying of paver blocks.
In the island city, of the 89 roads under improvement, 66 are asphalt roads and 23 are concretised. Work was started in early November and is expected to be completed by May 2015. If some of them are pending even then, they will have to wait for the monsoons to get over next year. In fact, work on the busy Babasaheb Ambedkar road is yet to start.
The island city itself has road works worth Rs 1700 crore ongoing since 2012.
“Some of these road works were proposed in 2012-13, but the work order was only drawn this year since the traffic police did not give us permission. And so, these 89 roads were taken up only last month,” said an executive engineer from the Roads and Traffic department who did not wish to be named.
Similarly, in the Eastern suburbs, 200 road repairs to the tune of Rs 600 crore were proposed. Of these, the deputy chief engineer’s office claims that 30 have been completed, about 40 are ongoing and a whopping 100-120 are pending. The 40 ongoing roads under improvement are expected to be completed by May-end. Others like the S G Barve marg and the Mulund-Goregaon link road will have to wait.
“Our engineers do a survey of all the roads in the zone based on a ‘roughness index’. This is a way of determining how much wear and tear has the road undergone. Sometimes, there are so many potholes on a road that we decide to renew it completely. It is comparatively easier to start working on asphalt roads. But concretization takes longer. The traffic police does not give us permission for entire roads, and only a few stretches. That’s why work is sluggish,” said a senior engineer from the eastern suburbs’ roads and traffic department.
The western suburbs have seen the most number of ongoing improvement works since March this year. About 60 asphalt roads and 35 concrete roads are being improved and will be ready for use by December next year. About 40 of these are expected to be completed by March. The total cost is to the tune of Rs 800 crore.
[alert type=”e.g. warning, danger, success, info” title=””]Sr.No. Ongoing Road Works
Eastern Suburb
1 R C Marg, Chembur
2 V N Purav Marg, Chembur
3 Mother Dairy (Kurla)
4 Gulmohar Road
CITY
5 N. S. Road
6 R. A. Kidwai Road
7 Mahapalika Marg
8 P D Melle Road
9 Saibaba Road
10 G. D. Ambekar Road
11 Balasaheb Ambedkar Road
12 Sion Circle
WESTERN SUBURB
13 P- South: Sharma
Industrial Road
14 P-South: Aarey Milk Road
side speed
15 P- North: Rani Sati Marg
16 R South: Lokhandwala
Road
17 R- Central: Jairaj Naga
Road
18 R- Central: Datta Pada
Road
19 R- North: Jaywant Sawant
Marg side street
20 H- East: CST Road
21 H- East: Hans Bakula Road
22 H- West: Road No.33
23 H-West: Chitrakar
Dhurandhar Road
24 K- East: Gujarat Society
Road
25 K-East- Military Road
26 K-West: Patel Estate Road
27 K-West: Cpt. Sawant Road [/alert]
Tanvi Deshpande
