Mumbai civic chief sets Monday deadline for filling potholes

In his review meeting with the deputy municipal commissioners (DMC) of all the seven zones on Friday, Mehta ordered to make the city pothole-free by Monday, October 17

Civic chief Ajoy Mehta has now set a Monday [October 17] as the deadline for the civic administration to make the city pothole-free.

The civic body has faced severe criticism by citizens and elected representatives across all political parties over bad roads during monsoon. (File photo)

In his review meeting with the deputy municipal commissioners (DMC) of all the seven zones on Friday, Mehta ordered to make the city pothole-free by Monday, October 17. The civic chief has further instructed that these DMCs should oversee and also review the repairs and reconstruction of 300 roads, set to begin before the end of this month.

The civic body has faced severe criticism by citizens and elected representatives across all political parties over bad roads during monsoon. On Thursday, various standing committee members including the Shiv Sena and BJP were upset with the administration for turning a blind eye to potholes and even threatened to move a no-confidence motion against Mehta. The corporators had urged the government to call the commissioner---an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer—back to the state government administration. However, the government has the powers to accept or supersede such a resolution.

The civic chief has ordered all the DMCs to take strict action against the contractors for not filling potholes on the roads that fall under defect liability period (DLP).Owing to repeated complaints of the citizens, corporators and even civic officers, over contractors not filling potholes, the civic chief has asked the DMCs to get such potholes repaired by the internal BMC staff and collect the expense from contractors’ deposits.

A civic official said, “The potholes will be filled on a war footing and with the withdrawal of monsoon, the work will be easily completed. According to the civic chief’s directives, the contractors will have to face action if the roads under DLP are not maintained.”

Meanwhile, the repair and reconstruction work on 100-odd roads is set to begin on Monday. The civic body has planned to reconstruct over 1,000 roads by May 31, 2017 by using asphalt and cement-concrete technologies. Sources said the civic chief will conduct a quarterly review of such road works.

One of the DMCs present in the meeting, not willing to be named, said, “We have been asked to conduct surprise checks and also keep a close eye on the quality of work that is carried out by the appointed contractors.”