Roads in Thane to be pothole free by May 31

Thane

With 90 percent of the road repair works undertaken under the ₹214 crore package in the corporation limits, the Thane Municipal Commissioner has set a deadline of May 31 to finish all the works and have a pothole-free ride across Thane.

Meanwhile, the remaining 10 percent work will begin in a week claimed TMC commissioner Abhijit Bangar. The TMC had initiated multiple roads works in Thane in December after state chief minister Eknath Shinde assured pothole-free roads in Thane within six months.

“We have already started 90 percent of the works, while 10 percent will also begin in a week. Unlike all the other previous years, this time the work is carried out in advance and as a priority and we have a plan to finish it by May 31. The work is underway in full swing in several parts of the city,” said Bangar.

The TMC, which received flak during the last monsoon for huge potholes on roads, has now assured to have much safer roads under the ₹214 crore package covering a stretech of aroun53 kms. The funds have been allocated under the integrated road development programme by the Maharashtra government, which will be used for the upgradation of Thane city and suburban roads that fall under the TMC jurisdiction.

Last year during monsoon, Thane recorded the deaths of seven citizens due to potholes. The residents and activists blamed the civic body for lack of upkeep of the roads in several parts ahead of the monsoon. In this road development plan, the civic body will undertake works in three types which includes deep resurfacing, Ultra-Thin White Topping (UTWT) and cement concretization. Earlier, a survey done by the TMC revealed that the city has a total of 1,649 potholes. Although the civic body-initiated pothole-filling in several parts throughout the monsoon, the residents complained that after a few heavy downpours, the potholes are back on the roads. The TMC used Wet Bound Macadem, Cold mix, paver blocks, asphalting or concretisation and spends around ₹2.5 crore for this work every year.

“To ensure that quality work is done, I will be personally visiting all the sites from time to time. At the same time, IIT Bombay has been appointed to do the third-party audit, which will bwe simultaneously carried out. We want the result to be good and there will be zero potholes on the roads this year. All the department heads and contractors have been directed to ensure the same,” said Bangar.

Meanwhile the civic body has also planned to repair the service road at Ghodbunder which already has potholes in several parts. “This won’t be done under the package, but as part of the regular repair works. But it will be done as a priority and repairs will be completed before May 31 along with other roads,” said Bangar.

“The roads across Thane are undergoing repairs which also causes congestion most of the time. The congestion is worth it if only the road does not develop potholes when the monsoon begins. Every year, we face traffic jams when the civic body is carrying out road repairs and later during the monsoon, the same roads develop potholes which again leads to traffic,” said Kiran Gaikwad,40, a motorist.

“If the works are undertaken under the Smart City Scheme, the work should be done smartly too. The civic body should ensure all other works like drains, pipelines, culverts should also be done. On several occasions, we find that once the road is ready, the officials later notice some flaws in drains or pipelines and again the road is dug up. This should not be the case. I will carry out inspections personally to see if the work is being carried out considering all these aspects,” said Rahul Pingle, 48, social activist from Thane.

As per the civic body, out of the total 381 kms road network in TMC limits, a total of 208 kms are cement concrete roads, while remaining are bitumen roads. This means nearly 55 percent of the roads are cement roads.

Road works underway

Cost of deep surfacing: ₹82.59 crore

Road length: 27.78 kms

Asphalt roads: 20.72 kms

Mastic Asphalt: 7.05 kms

Total number of roads: 34 roads

Cost of UTWT (concretisation with thin layer): ₹81.76 crore

Road length : 22.93 kms

Rotal number of roads : 81 roads

Cost of cement concretisation (new roads): ₹30.83 crore

Road length : 2.12 kms

Total number of roads : 12 roads