Pre-monsoon road work to start, workers to be regularly screened for Covid-19 symptoms

With monsoon less than a month and a half away, it has now been decided that all desilting and monsoon road works will start wherever possible, other than in containment

With monsoon less than a month and a half away, it has now been decided that all desilting and monsoon road works will start wherever possible, other than in containment zones.

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This was decided in a review meeting held by the civic commissioner on Friday, along with Mumbai suburban guardian minister Aaditya Thackeray.

In a series of tweets, Thackeray, on Friday, said, “This afternoon, I took a zoom video meeting of BMC officers, along with Municipal Commissioner Pravin Pardeshi for the preparations of the onset of the monsoon and to complete the essential pre-monsoon works in time, along with our fight against Covid. As guardian minister, Mumbai Suburbs, I’ve been in constant touch with the officers. Today once again in the zoom video call, I briefed them on my conversations with the MLAs, Corporators and citizens, their suggestions and pain points as well.”

Thackeray added, “In times as the fight with Covid, the world is on pause, but not our monsoons and the onset would mean we have to complete our essential works before the monsoons arrive. I’m thankful to all the officers for their hard work and outreach, managing the situation and works together.”

The BMC has also decided to not start digging or repair of any new roads, but only focus on completing the ongoing road repair works before the onset of monsoon. According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), monsoon is expected to arrive in the city by June 11 and is likely to stay on till October 08. Given this schedule, BMC has little time to complete its monsoon preparedness work.

Sanjay Darade, deputy municipal commissioner, BMC (infrastructure) said, “We are starting work wherever it necessary to finish work before monsoons. At places where we can delay works due to the current scenario where there is a shortage of labour, we will start work post-May 03. Also, we are going to monitor the health condition of those working on our pre-monsoon work site.”

Currently, post the lockdown announced last month, repair and maintenance work on 336 major and minor roads along with that of ambitious Coastal Road work was hit. However, work has started here with bare minimum work-force at the Coastal Road site. At many sites work may not start until the lockdown period ends on May 3 given the labour shortage.

Manish Valanju, Assistant Municipal Commissioner, BMC’s L-ward in Kurla where Mithi River is located said, “Desilting work for Mithi River has started, however, there were problems at ward levels for minor desilting works. For this, we have worked out a solution to extend contracts of the contractors who were involved last year for similar work to be doing the same to ensure minor nullahs are desilted before the onset of monsoons.”

Meanwhile, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), which has city’s two arterial roads - the Eastern Express Highway (EEH) and Western Express Highway (WEH) - under its jurisdiction, has started desilting works along the 25-km WEH on Friday. It is also in the process of starting works at EEH soon. “The stormwater drains that need to be realigned or fixed at various metro sites in Mumbai will also be done soon,” a senior official from MMRDA said.

(With inputs from Tanushree Venkatraman)