For The Time, The BMC Is Undertaking Repairs Of Worn Out Water Pipelines Simultaneously With Road Works To Ease The Woes Of Mumbaikars
Mumbai : In lieu of the ongoing roadwork in different parts of the city, the BMC has for the first time envisaged replacing old water service connections in six wards of the city simultaneously to make sure roads don’t have to be dug up twice. The total cost for the six wards – three in each suburb – is around Rs 42.6 crore and a proposal for the same will be presented before the standing committee on Wednesday.
The civic roads department has undertaken road repairs on 224 roads of the city since October last year with costs running into crores. While some repairs will be completed till March, most will go on until May and some even till next year. Taking note of the situation, the BMC’s hydraulic engineering department has proposed repairing about one lakh old, leaking and worn-out water service connections in six wards to make sure roads don’t have to be dug-up twice. These wards include K-East (Andheri East), H-East (Santacruz, Vile Parle, Mahim, Dharavi) and H-West (Bandra) in the western suburbs and N (Ghatkopar), S (Bhandup) and T (Mulund) wards in the eastern suburbs.
Bids have already been invited for the project and the department has zeroed in on one contractor each for both suburbs via e-tendering. While the cost for repairing these connections is pegged at approximately Rs 18.28 crore in the western suburbs, the ones in eastern suburbs will cost around Rs 24.32 crore. Contractors are liable to complete works within 24 months.
“This is the first time the BMC is undertaking such pipeline repair simultaneously with road works. Work will begin within 15 days of getting the standing committee’s approval and will take about a year or more depending on the nature of the road work,” informed Ramesh Bamble, chief hydraulic engineer. The proposal will come in front of the standing committee for approval on Wednesday.
Tanvi Deshpande
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Pre-Monsoon Road Repair Process Begins
Mumbai : After facing citizens’ wrath year-after-year for shoddy roadwork and potholes, the BMC has invited bids for pre-monsoon road maintenance contracts worth Rs 37.83 crore. The project, which will begin in early March, will strengthen the existing network of city roads and bring down the cost of BMC’s last-minute monsoon patchwork by one-thirds.
Every monsoon, Mumbaikars reel under the menace of shoddy road works in all parts of the city, with potholes, slush and road accidents reigning supreme. The civic body’s annual monsoon road repairs clearly not enough, the BMC introduced a pre-monsoon roads maintenance program in the year 2012-13, under which roads would be repaired in the summers. Work involves surveying all roads in the city as well as suburbs to check for the ones most deteriorated. A map is then prepared and work is prioritized based on it. Work involves repair and reconstruction of all roads, including asphalt, concrete and pavered ones. According to BMC’s claims, the corporation had reported more than 38,000 potholes in 2013, which were reduced to around 14,500 in 2014.
“It is almost impossible to repair all roads in June-July considering the large number of potholes. Therefore, we introduced this scheme in 2012-13, which turned out to be successful. The cost of our annual repairs came down by one-thirds, and the number of potholes was also reduced. That’s why we have invited bids this year as well,” informed SVR Srinivas, additional municipal commissioner who is in-charge of roads.
In 2013, the civic body had allotted Rs 28 crore for carrying out preventive road maintenance works, plus an equal amount for treating potholes reported during monsoon.
This year, the BMC has floated tenders to carry out works in seven zones: two each in island city and eastern suburbs and remaining three in western suburbs. Once contractors are shortlisted, a proposal will be presented before the civic standing committee for approval by early February. Once approved, work will start by first week of March and will continue till end of May. The corporation, however, will have separate fund allocated for filling-up potholes though.
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