Mumbai civic body starts repairing 99 of 1,200 ‘bad’ roads

Civic body has to first rebuild 305 roads that were supposed to be mended before monsoon

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has started repairing 99 out of around 1,200 roads that are listed to be repaired this year. These repairs work, which started on October 1, will first take up repairs that are a spill over from 2016-17, which should have been competed before the monsoon season.

The BMC got a series of pothole and bad road complaints this monsoon. (HT FILE)

Of the work taken up on 931 roads in 2016-17, BMC was not able to complete repairing 305 roads before monsoons started, which is being continued this month.

According to an official from the roads department, contracts for roads added to priority list during and after the monsoon season have not been issued yet. The official said, “We have floated tenders for new road repair works, but haven’t finalised contracts. Issuing work orders for these road repairs can take up to a month.” Hence, work on repair of these roads will see a delay of over 45 days.

Municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta has directed the roads department to fast forward the work on roads this year, and complete it before the monsoon, so that it does not spill over to next year.

For works that are scheduled for October, the BMC has received the traffic department’s permission to undertake repairs on 119 roads, and has started work on 99 of them. Of these, 43 fall in the priority II category. The official said, “There are other priority II roads where work has not begun yet, but can start right away, as it will not require permission from the traffic department.”

After work on priority II roads is complete, work on close to 300 roads in the priority III category will begin. Work orders for these roads will be issued by second week of November. According to sources, there is a delay in the tendering process of some civic works due to issues over GST.