BMC proposes new rules for road repair

In the first step towards the overhaul in the quality of city roads, the civic body has proposed new guidelines for road repair and maintenance.

In the first step towards the overhaul in the quality of city roads, the civic body has proposed new guidelines for road repair and maintenance. The civic body says that these guidelines will be stricter, to ensure that errant contractors do not go scot-free.

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Under the proposed guidelines, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will pay just 50% of the total amount to the contractor at the time of repair. The rest will be paid only if the repair work lasts through the monsoon.

The BMC also plans to make it compulsory for roads to be shut for traffic for only three hours, after pothole filling work has been undertaken, to allow the premix to settle.

Currently, a road can be shut for 24 hours. However, since the roads are usually opened to traffic before the 24-hour period lapsed, contractors often cite that as a reason for the reappearance of potholes.

Additionally, the civic body also plans to award contracts to more than one contractor, in the same ward, to undertake road repair and pothole-filling work. Currently, only one contractor is assigned the work in one ward.In the upcoming tender, the civic body will be inviting only modern technologies for pothole filling and to make roads less prone to potholes. Talking to HT, Municipal commissioner Subodh Kumar said: “The idea is to encourage competition among contractors. We will be dividing the quantum of work according to how low they bid.”

Having multiple contractors, will bring in competition ensure better quality work, said technical advisory committee chairman NV Merani.

“We will have a common performance evaluation for them. Also since the technologies will be costlier, closer evaluation will be needed,” he said.