Rains are here, roads still bad

The civic body may have spent nearly Rs 1,000 crore on the city’s roads over the past year, but that’s not going to make your commute any smoother this monsoon.

The civic body may have spent nearly Rs 1,000 crore on the city’s roads over the past year, but that’s not going to make your commute any smoother this monsoon.

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HT’s monsoon audit of 17 spots — including five major roads — conducted on June 1 by a six-member panel of experts has shown that roads are already in a bad condition.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is focusing on filling potholes, but it has neglected other equally important issues, HT’s experts panel said, giving the city’s monsoon preparedness a score of 4/10 (or 40%).

“Joints on roads are yet to be filled, roads that have sunk need to be raised, trenches dug for various purposes need to be filled properly. Unless all this is done, road quality cannot be maintained,” said Nandkumar Salvi, panellist and former chief engineer, storm water drains.

“Over the past one year, we have re-laid many roads. Apart from this, we have now appointed contractors to fill potholes, so the monsoon should hopefully be smooth for the city,” said a senior BMC official, on condition of anonymity.