Chief Minister Eknath Shinde pays tributes to Bal Gangadhar Tilak on his birth anniversary, in Mumbai on Saturday. (Express Photo)With BMC elections ahead, the civic body on Saturday promised to provide pothole-free roads to Mumbaikars within the next two years. This comes after Chief Minister Eknath Shinde reviewed the status of BMC’s road works.
During the review, Shinde directed the civic administration to ensure that the existing potholes on Mumbai’s roads, resulting from heavy rainfall, are repaired on priority and smooth flow of traffic is ensured without causing inconvenience to commuters.
The review took place around 6 pm on Saturday at Nandanvan Bungalow in Malabar Hill, which has been serving as Shinde’s residence for the last two-and-a-half years. At the meeting, BMC administrator Iqbal Singh Chahal made a presentation to Shinde.
In its statement, BMC said, “On behalf of the BMC administration, Iqbal Singh Chahal assured the chief minister that work of cement concretisation of Mumbai’s roads will be completed in the next two years, and the roads will be pothole-free.”
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It added that at present, work of cement concretisation of 236 km of roads has been undertaken for 2022-23 at a cost of Rs 2,200 crore. While work on 400 km of roads has been proposed for the next two years, work of cement concretisation of 989.84 km of roads is already complete, the statement said.
Speaking to mediapersons, Shinde said, “We have drawn a programme to make Mumbai pothole-free in the next two years. In the next two years, all Mumbai roads will be concretised. Soak pits will be constructed along the median and side of the roads so that rain water can flow off the road.”
He added that every year, to fill potholes, BMC has been using cold mix, which is now coming off, leading to accidents.
“It has been decided that potholes will be repaired with advanced eco polymer techniques and rapid setting concrete… This would ensure that Ganpati mandals would hence not be hassled owing to potholes, BMC chief I S Chahal has assured me,” said Shinde.
During the presentation to the CM, Chahal said the latest tenders for road works have a clause seeking construction of soak pits at regular intervals on the newly-made roads, so that rain water does not accumulate.
Of the 400 km of proposed road works over the next two years, while 50 km are in the island city, and will be resurfaced at a cost of Rs 800 crore, 75 km are in the eastern suburbs and will be resurfaced at a cost of Rs 600 crore.
As many as 275 km of roads are in western suburbs will be resurfaced at a cost of Rs 3,500 crore. The total cost of repairing 400 km of roads is estimated to be Rs 4,900 crore.
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