BMC to move all utility lines to sides of roads

Mumbai's BMC to shift all utility lines to ducts at road sides from March 1 to avoid frequent road digging. Guidelines aim at systematic and efficient utility layout.

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to shift all utility lines including water, drainage, sewerage, storm water drains, internet and optical fibre cables and gas lines to ducts located at the sides of roads. The civic body has issued a set of 16 guidelines to this effect that are applicable from March 1. The move is expected to negate the need for continuous and repeated digging of roads for repairing or laying new utility lines.

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Currently, all utility lines are laid under roads in a haphazard manner. “This will all change now – it will be made systematic,” said an official from the BMC’s roads department. The new guidelines, approved by municipal commissioner Iqbal Chahal on February 7, will be applicable for all roads where concretisation work is underway as well as in future.

The guidelines bar the use of reinforced cement concrete (RCC) hume pipes, used for laying water and sewerage lines, under roads. Such pipes sink deep into the ground and cause problems, and they will be replaced by chambers measuring 1x1 metre at every 50 metres during road improvement works, said an official. This will help club multiple connections with the stub water mains, which will be located at along the boundaries of plots or the edges of the road, the official added.

Only gas pipelines will be exempted from the duct as they require a cool environment, surrounded by soil, the official explained. While existing lines will continue the way they are, gas lines will be laid in advance in future to prevent excavation of roads for their maintenance.

The guidelines state that all utility lines must be placed when road concretisation or improvement is underway. For this, the building proposals department would send a road-wise list of all proposed buildings and their future potential, so the hydraulic department and sewerage planning department can calculate the size of water and sewerage connections needed. They have been asked to inform the roads department so necessary arrangements can be made on roads.

The list of roads being concretised will be published online along with the locations and a public notice will be given to residents before the laying or repair of any utility linea alongside road improvement works. The BMC’s respective ward will be responsible for provision of streetlights.

The civic body as conducted several meetings with gas companies, power companies and the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay to streamline utility lines under roads, said an official.

Ramesh Deshmukh, vice president of the Municipal Engineers Association, said the guidelines were not new. “They were introduced way back when Sadashiv S Tinaikar was the municipal commissioner between 1986 to 1990, when he first started the concretisation of roads. But the guidelines were not being followed, they were just on paper.”