The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is working on its annual process of pothole filling throughout the city.
BMC will be acting up on all the complaints they have received relating to potholes via their vigilance department. This time they have decided to take a top-notch of the issue, of quality works, and check whether sub-standard patching is the reason behind the recurrence of craters despite fixing them.
Apart from this, the civic body this year came up with a unique method of fixing the pothole issue in mumbai. BMC and Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) have decided to make use of reactive asphalt technology.
Reactive asphalt, a new substance, and rapid-hardening concrete will be used to patch potholes on major roads under contracts worth INR 300 crore that the civic body has granted.
Sharing more details about this ongoing venture, BMC official said, “The technology has been provided by the company Ecogreen Infra Development. The chemical powder has been imported. No complaints concerning road gravel removal or re-potting were noticed.”
It is pertinent to note that this year, BMC has received almost 190 complaints, out of which 100 have been addressed by fixing potholes. But craters seem to reappear after a few days. Hence, the vigilance team has taken the initiative to check if the potholes are fixed in time and as per the tender’s specifications only.
An official from the civic body stated vigilance officers will visit roads at random to see if potholes have been filled in accordance with the tender's specifications. If not, a note will be sent to the relevant department demanding that it execute the task in accordance with the condition. Additionally, the contractor would face penalties, and his name might be put on a blacklist.
It is a major issue faced by citizens but the question arises that will this new technology used by BMC and NMMC be a good solution to it?
What Is Asphalt Technique?
Asphalt is a black or brown petroleum-like material having a consistency varying from viscous liquid to glassy solid. It can be obtained in the form of a residue from the distillation of petroleum or from natural deposits. It consists of compounds of hydrogen and carbon with minor proportions of nitrogen, sulfur, and oxygen.
BMC described reactive asphalt as a type of asphalt mixed with chemicals and gravels, which makes it stronger than normal asphalt.
The primary benefit of the technology is that there is no need to wait for rainfall to stop filling up the pothole as seen with the conventional asphalting work.
It is also said that vehicular movement can take place in just two hours after filling potholes with reactive asphalt. Both the civic bodies first made a trial attempt in some parts of Belapur and it was a success.
Will this technique solve potholes menace?
The civic body has claimed that after using this mix, no complaints against potholes have been received from the citizens.
P Velrasu, additional commissioner of the BMC said, “Reactive asphalt is being used so that vehicular traffic is uninterrupted. A pilot project has been implemented at three places using a mixture of reactive asphalt. The mixture has been provided to every ward.”
Executive engineer, NMMC, Arvind Shinde said last year, this technology was experimented with in some parts of Belapur and the results were satisfactory. BMC too first tried to fix potholes using this technology in the Khar Subway region and said the results were effective.
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