The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has come up with a unique way to tackle the problem of potholes during the monsoon season. It has asked road engineers to ride two-wheelers to experience the condition of the roads firsthand and identify the potholes. The potholes will then be filled within 48 hours.
The civic body has assigned a sub-engineer to each of the 227 civic electoral wards. They will make sure that pothole-related complaints are resolved within time. The deputy and assistant municipal commissioner have also been tasked with supervising road repair projects in their respective wards.
Sub-engineers will visit the site to verify that the contractor has applied mastic asphalt to the damaged area. The logic behind this is that the condition of the road cannot be assessed from a four-wheeler. Hence, they are asked to visit the locations on a two-wheeler.
This development comes as the citizens often complaint about potholes through local authorities and social media users. The BMC also has a pothole tracking system where residents can upload and share images of potholes.
So far, only 25 per cent of the concretization on roads has been completed. In a recent brainstorming session organised by the BMC, road engineers received guidance from IIT Bombay specialists to help improve the quality of roads in Mumbai.
Two companies had replied to the tender for concretizing 212 roads in the island city. They are APCO InfraProjects Ltd., which has worked on state and national highways, and NCC Ltd. NCC Ltd. is working on road concretization in the western suburbs.
The winning bidder will be announced by June first week. The work order will be given when the model code of conduct is taken back. The actual construction on an additional 312 km of roads will begin after the monsoon.
The civic body had given the contract for phase 1 of concretizing 212 roads to Roadway Solutions India Infra Ltd. (RSIIL) in January 2023. However, due to inadequate progress, the contract was suspended.
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