Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) engineers will now learn about constructing roads from experts. The civic body has decided to send 50 engineers to Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B) for a detailed training on road construction, repairs and resurfacing. They will also look at ways of eliminating potholes.

Mumbai may be the country’s financial capital but its residents have to deal with bad roads round the year. The situation worsens every monsoon, with new potholes, loose paver blocks leading to a motorist’s nightmare. The civic body keeps a look out for ways to improve the quality of roads and has recently started manufacturing a ‘cold mix’ to fill potholes based on an imported technology. The ‘mix’ has been more or less successful in the few places it was used but complaints of poor roads continue to come in.

Now, the BMC has taken another step in this direction. The two-day training will broadly cover maintenance and repairs of roads (concrete and asphalt), any new invention or research in road construction and resurfacing.

“A similar training programme was held some three years ago. However, since our staff keeps getting transferred, it is important to train the new batch too. It will be a refresher course for them,” said Vinod Chithore, director of engineering services and projects in the BMC.

A proposal from IIT-B in the matter was recently signed by Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta and the training is expected to take place soon. The 50 engineers will include sub-engineers, assistant engineers and some executive engineers. The training will also touch upon pothole-filling, the problem of utilities and trenching — the biggest cause of damage to city roads.

“IIT experts work in several other States as well. Maybe they will share some interesting case studies or success stories,” Mr. Chithore said.

Once training is done, the BMC will decide what is to be implemented across the city depending on how cost effective and durable the solution is. The BMC will pay IIT-B ₹14 lakh for the two-day program.