The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has appointed two road design consultants to produce a map of underground utilities in the city. This is being done so as to reduce the digging of roads for maintenance or repair works. The contracts offered to the consultants will be valid for a period of 5 years.
A proposal to approve the appointment of the consultants has been placed before the BMC’s Standing Committee with a meeting set to take place on October 26.
“Most of the time, utility agencies dig up roads without permission, in the wake of an emergency. This leads to deterioration of the roads. We realised that ducting of these utilities is essential so that if they have to be repaired, the roads will not be dug up”, a senior official from the roads department said.
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The consultants are also tasked with preparing a plan to shift all utilities to ducts. The goal here is to avoid causing any damage to the city’s roads with several of them being in a dilapidated condition already. Civic officials have mentioned that constant digging and patching up of roads can adversely affect their upper layers and consequently lead to water seepage.
The consultants will also prepare sketches or designs for trench-free pavements with utility ducts. Further, the consultants will recommend priority locations where the mapping of utilities can be done first.
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While utility agencies dig up the roads for repairs and other work, they often neglect the work that comes after i.e. patching up the roads. Moreover, the holes dug up by the agencies can at times remain untouched for days.
In the long run, the move to have dedicated ducts with entry points for underground utilities is expected to reduce the need to dig up roads frequently, while also cutting down the cost of road repairs and upkeep.
The consultants have been reportedly given 54 roads to map the utilities underground which includes P D’Mello Road, Walkeshwar Marg, Belasis Road, Senapati Bapat Marg, Juhu Versova Link Road, Carter Road, SV Road and Malad Link Road among others.
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