Pollution rising due to repetitive road concretisation: Residents of western suburbs

The lack of planning is not only impacting public health but also leading to loss of public resources, residents said

Mumbai: Repeated concretisation of roads in the western suburbs, including stretches concreted recently, is adding to air pollution and worsening the Air Quality Index (AQI) in several pockets of the city, residents told Hindustan Times. The lack of planning is not only impacting public health but also leading to loss of public resources, the residents said.

The recently concretised Madhusudhan Kalekar Marg in Bandra East has been dug up for repairs (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT Photo)

In Chandivali, for instance, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has taken up concretisation of a 200-metre DP (development plan) road between Sangharsh Nagar and Nahar, which was concretised only recently, alleged Mandeep Singh Makkar, founder of the Chandivali Citizens Welfare Association.

Makkar said that when he asked workers on site about the duplication, he was told that a developer who has a project in the area had concretised the road earlier to claim certain benefits.

“The workers said the contractor had forgotten to lay drainage lines along the stretch. So the BMC is concretising the road again using public funds,” he said. “Duplication of work is not only adding to air and noise pollution in the locality but also causing inconvenience to residents.”

Sudesh Gawli, executive engineer with BMC’s roads department, also said the road was not concretised by the civic body earlier and it was probably a local developer who had done the same to further his commercial interests.

“The proposal to concretise the road was approved earlier, but we were waiting for a no objection certificate, which we received only recently. Accordingly, we have started work on concretising the road now,” Gawli said.

A similar scenario plays out at sector two in Charkop, where both sides of the recently concretised Charkop police station road are dug up. High tension electricity cables will be laid along one side of the road while on the other side, near the Milan Sweets junction, the hydraulic department has dug up a pit to identify a cavity on a water pipeline, residents said.

“The Charkop police station road was concreted last year. But yet again, both sides of the road have been dug up for over a month,” said Mili Shetty, chief co-ordinator of the Charkop Sector 8 Vikas Samiti.

Though the dug up areas are concealed behind green cloth, the ongoing work and dust is causing much inconvenience, said local shopkeepers.

Assistant municipal commissioner (R-S ward) Aarti Golekar said one side of the road was dug up for nearly a month as they were trying to identify a cavity in the water mains.

“We had to empty the water pipeline completely to detect the cavity. We have identified the problem area now and even let water into the pipeline to check it,” Golekar said. The pit would be closed soon once work was completed, he noted.

A proposal to concretise the entire junction area is pending and once that is taken up, all utilities would be ducted together, Golekar added.

“That should prevent the road from being dug up again and again,” he said.

Along similar lines, in Kandivli’s Lokhandwala Township, cemented roads have been dug up in phases to augment sewerage capacity.

Santy Shetty, founder of the residents’ group We All Connect (WAC), said that though the roads in front of his building were concreted in July, they had been dug up again to install barricades along the footpaths.

“These road works have led to more pollution and air quality has worsened. Shouldn’t the barricades have been put up at the time of road concretisation to spare us from this ordeal,” Shetty said.

Residents said they were unable to take their cars out of their buildings due to the ongoing work.

“The contractors who have been assigned the task seem to have no concern for people or trees. They seem to do things as per their own whims and fancies, with no transparency or accountability,” Shetty said. “Elected representatives are supposed to look into the issue but that does not seem to be happening,”

Trivankumar Karnani, founder of the Mumbai North Central DIstrict Forum (MNCDF), alleged that nexus between bureaucrats and officials was behind the repeated concretisation of roads.

“When concretised roads are repaired after being dug up, they remain uneven and rough, contrasting sharply with the smooth surface of the rest of the road. This is nothing but a waste of public money,” Karnani said.