New rules, booklet to prevent another road scam in the city

MUMBAI: Cautious after the road scam, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has given out a booklet containing details of contracts and contractors to all

MUMBAI: Cautious after the road scam, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has given out a booklet containing details of contracts and contractors to all 24 ward offices, to make it easy for them to file complaints about shoddy work.

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The booklet includes details of work orders, date of completion of work, nature of work (cement and concrete), asphalting, repair of sidestrips and junctions, among others. It also gives details of the cost of the contract, with the contact numbers of contractors and their supervisors on the site. The booklet also contains details of the road engineers overseeing the work.

The civic body has given work orders to various contractors for repair and reconstruction of 891 roads and 122 junctions, which will start after October 1. It includes roads that were incomplete, but were opened for vehicular movement owing to the monsoon, along with new road contracts that were approved after April. If civic sources are to be believed, it would be the first time the repair of junctions is being taken up on such a large scale.

Apart from circulating the booklet to ward offices, it has been sent to 32 utility maintaining agencies to avoid re-digging of newly constructed roads. Civic officials said utility agencies should not plan digging of newly constructed roads.

“If they take up work on a newly constructed road within a year, the utility agency will have to pay us a penalty, which will be four times more than their reinstatement charges,” said a civic official from the roads department.

This, however, has not gone down too well with the experts. GD Patil, former road engineer of BMC, said, “Instead of adding ward officers, the BMC should have increased the strength of the vigilance department or should have formed a separate cell for keeping an eye on the work to prevent any irregularity.”

Anandini Thakoor, chairperson of H-west citizens’ federation, said, “While potholes are yet to be fixed, new roads will be dug up to add to our woes. They should involve members of local advanced locality managements in the process.”