That is my equation for any international city to have good roads and footpaths. And no, it is not a highly complicated equation (like Einstein’s E=MC2). In fact it is very simple. The four Ms are represented by MONEY + MANPOWER + MATERIAL and MACHINES.
The BMC has more than adequate of all the above four Ms, being the richest of all municipal corporations in India. Still, Mumbai has the worst roads and footpaths compared to other international cities.
So fault lies in the four Ps which are: POLITICS + PERMISSION + PROCESS and PLANNING. And all above four Ps are problems. And problems are in ascending order.
The politician will insist on doing a road where he can please his vote bank:
Example: Three years ago, just to please the Corporator, Road no. 18 near Sion Hospital where no BEST bus passes and which has a frequency of one vehicle every fifteen minutes was concretised. Whereas DR B A Road, the main road in front of Matunga police station where 50 bus routes pass and on an average 30 vehicles pass in a minute, was done this year. Both roads are a stone’s throw distance from one another, and for the last five years thousands of vehicles faced traffic jam during monsoon on Dr B A Road .
Second P which goes wrong is traffic permission:
For some strange reason the traffic police headquarter at Pochkanwalla Road, Worli, will not give permission for road repairs to BMC till February and then with none of the parameters changing, gives permission, and expects BMC to complete the work before monsoon, putting totally unnecessary pressure, which affects the quality.
And believe me no diversion, no signage or no extra manpower is deployed by traffic police to reduce people’s problem in traffic jam when road work is going on.
Example: On one Dr B A Road from Dadar circle to Sion circle work is carried out on 4 junctions (Ruia, Maheshwari Udyan, Sion Hospital and Sion circle). And plus on two roads (Dadar and Gandhi Market) simultaneously, instead of staggering the work throughout the year.
The third P which is at fault is the Process:
There is no foolproof mechanism in BMC to ensure that material used by the contractor is of the right quality.
Example: The paver blocks are loaded in trucks at Gujarat factory at night and arrive at the Mumbai city early morning. They are laid on the footpaths late at night in absence of supervision and the process of leveling the paver blocks with a mechanical vibrator is totally skipped, even though it is mandatory as per BMC technical committee.
Example: Last month I had to call the central agency road engineers on site (Matunga police station footpath and Koolars footpath at King’s Circle) and got both the lots of paver blocks on those footpaths rejected. They were of poor quality.
Engineers informed me that the blocks were sent by the factory without curing, and hence the quality was poor and rejected by them. But for my complaining they would have been laid on the two footpaths, surely.
The Biggest factor is the fourth ‘P’ – Planning.
BMC does not believe in planning at all. Year after year, the fund for roads, kept aside by BMC in its budget never got utilised more than 50% due to total lack of planning. Ultimately Bombay High Court had to pull up present Municipal Commissioner in court and order him to submit next 3 years advance plan to make all Mumbai roads motorable. So this year believe it or not 90% of fund (Rs 2,500 crore) will get utilised.
