₹228.49-Cr allocated to fix 21 worst affected roads in 3 months

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) informed the Bombay high court (HC) on Friday that it will concretise 21 worst affected roads in Mumbai in three months, at a spend of ₹228.49 crore.

The HC, while hearing a contempt petition by advocate Ruju Thakker last Thursday, had asked the BMC chief and secretary of the Public Works Department (PWD) to list the 20 worst affected roads and present a roadmap to fix them.

HT on Friday reported that the western suburb was the worst affected with potholes and a holistic approach will be used by BMC to concretise the thoroughfares.

During the hearing on Friday, BMC commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal presented an action plan on ‘Pothole Free Mumbai’ before the division bench of CJ Dipankar Datta and Justice Karnik.

₹140.2 crores have been allocated to the western suburbs, where 10 roads will be concretised. Of these, the heaviest purse of ₹47 crores, has been set aside for concretisation of the 7.2-kilometer stretch of Aarey Road. Six hundred meters of Samata Nagar Road, in Kandivali, will be concretised at ₹18 crores, while 1.25 kilometers of Kherwadi Road, in Bandra, has been allocated ₹15 crores.

Six roads in the eastern suburbs will be concretised at ₹45.25 crores. The highest amount – ₹18.14 crores -- will be spent on concretising 950 meters of Bhandup Village Road, followed by one kilometer of Dargah Road (from LBS Marg to Tansa Pipeline) for ₹7.77 crores and 520 meters of M N Road (from LBS Marg to Kale Marg) at ₹7.2 crores.

The city division will spend ₹43.04 crores to concretise five roads. The 1.2-kilometer stretch of T J Road in Sewri, will cost ₹14.56 crores, followed by 700 meters of T B Kadam Marg, in Chinchpokli, at ₹10.58 crores and 606 meters of V N Naik Marg, in Grant Road, at ₹10.15 crores.

In his presentation, the civic body chief also shared that 34,392 potholes were reported from April to September 23, 2022, of which 34,287 were repaired by BMC. A whopping 16,170 potholes were reported in the western suburbs, followed by the city division which reported 10,337 potholes and 7885 in the eastern suburbs.

Chahal also informed the court that of the 2050 kilometers of roads in Mumbai under BMC, 990 kilometers have already been concretised, while work is on on 265 kilometers.

Alongside, PWD also presented a list of 20 worst affected roads under its department. HC said it will monitor the situation and asked each party to submit a status report every two months.