Experts from IIT Bombay to assist in ongoing road repair works

THANE: The state and the Thane municipal administration has roped in experts from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bombay to assist them in executing all on-going and future road revamp works in the chief minister’s city, officials have informed.
The orientation training was organised at the Urban Research Center of Thane Municipal Corporation.
"IIT Bombay, deputy director prof. KV Krishna Rao, Associate prof. P. Vedagiri, prof. Solomon Debarma guided the team of 100 engineers from Thane Municipal Corporation, 20 contractors and their representatives who attended the training,," said municipal commissioner Abhijit Bangar.
The experts briefed about how to identify the quality of materials used for road works, quality assessment of work, quality control and proper method of doing it, tests to be done for roads, effect on environment and temperature, other matters to be done for quality work, analysis of technical matters and other ancillary matters, an official said.
It may be noted that road works worth Rs 214 crore in phase 1 and Rs 391 crore in phase 2 is being executed by the Thane Corporation and the works are in various stages of progress. IIT Bombay has been appointed to conduct a third party technical audit of all these roads. Also, in the road works, it is mainly proposed to revamp roads by using asphalting, mastic, UTWT and cement concreting method.
Earlier in January Bangar had announced that experts from the civil engineering department of the IIT will coordinate with Thane civic officials not just during the planning stages but also during the tendering also execution of any road revamp project being executed here using the state funds. The expert teams would also interact with the contractors to ensure a desired level of quality is attained while executing works. Few crucial projects already flagged off may also be included, he had said.
The experts are likely to be paid a small percentage of the total value of the work where they will share their expertise, informed a senior official from the PWD, Thane. The state and the corporation are jointly funding over Rs 605 crore for revamping and strengthening roads in Thane under the initiative called “Mukhyamantryanche Badalte Thane” (changing face of chief minister’s Thane).