Rains almost here, BMC yet to repair 45% of city’s roads

Work began in October 2018, when the BMC listed 1,378 roads that need pre-monsoon repair work. Seven months on, the BMC is still left with 633 roads to fix.

You may have to brace for yet another season of bad roads this monsoon. The rains are just over a month away, but the civic body has not fixed 45% of the roads it had listed for repairs across Mumbai. A long list of unrepaired roads spilling over from last year’s pre-monsoon work is partly to blame for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) slow pace of work.

You may have to brace for yet another season of bad roads this monsoon. The rains are just over a month away, but the civic body has not fixed 45% of the roads it had listed for repairs across Mumbai.

At the end of the monsoon every year, the BMC lists roads that need fixing. Work began in October 2018, when the BMC listed 1,378 roads that need pre-monsoon repair work. Seven months on, the BMC is still left with 633 roads to fix. These roads will now spill over to next year’s inventory, BMC officials said.

Until May 9, work on 506 roads was underway, while repairs of 239 roads have been completed. The civic body is focussing on major roads such as Mancherji Joshi Road and Morland Road in the island city; Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road, SV Road and Church Pakhadi Road in the western suburbs; Ghatkopar-Mankhurd Link Road, Mahul Road and LBS roads in the eastern suburbs. The BMC listed 725 roads and 18 junctions ahead of this year’s monsoon. However, it must also tackle its 2017-18 backlog of 635 roads. Before 2018’s monsoon, the BMC managed to complete repairs on 1,377 roads.

The delays come despite a 25% increase in the BMC’s 2019-20 budget for road work. The civic body has made a provision of ₹1,520 crore for more work on more than 300km of roads this year, compared to last year’s provision of ₹1,202 crore.

“The spill over should not happen,” said Vivek Pai from the Mumbai Mobility Forum. “The BMC either needs to increase their resources or upgrade their management skills to make sure no work is carried forward in the next phase. The spillover work causes delay, and this has repercussions on the improvement of the city’s infrastructure.”

Civic chief Ajoy Mehta, however, said there were two main reasons for spillover works. “One is the monsoon itself, during which we have to completely halt the work and this delays the process. The second scenario is the heavy traffic of the city. In a city like Mumbai, we cannot shut all roads at once and start repairing them,” Mehta said.

BMC officials said it repairs crucial roads, which causes the backlog. “We take up crucial roads on a priority basis, and therefore, some others get added to the next year’s inventory,” said a senior civic official, who did not wish to be named. The official also said work was being delyed as some staff were on election duty. “This hampers the repair work progress, but we are hoping to manage the work without them and finish it on time,” the official said.