BMC gears up for monsoon, May 20 deadline for road repairs

Expecting the monsoon to hit the city early, the civic body has set May 20 as deadline for completing road repairs while Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) has decided to complete 13 of 39 skywalks by the month end.

Learning lessons from the 2005 deluge, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has undertaken road repairs and filling up potholes on a war footing.

"Most of road repairs - upgradation of asphalt and concrete roads, filling potholes and other pre-monsoon works - will be completed latest by May 20 while those pending will be taken up after monsoon," Shridhar V Joshi, Chief Engineer, (Roads and Engineer), said.

During monsoon, pedestrians occupy more space on the roads as they carry umbrellas. So if the roads are dug up there will be less space available for them, Joshi said.

"Keeping this in mind we have issued notices to ward offices to ensure that road projects must be completed by May 20 or if that was not possible to suspend the work till the monsoon was over" he added.

The civic body is following the orders of the Bombay High Court which recently said that no digging activities will be allowed in May.

The Municipal Commissioner Jairaj Phatak said, "As per the Bombay High Court directive, no digging activity will be allowed in May. We would try to finish work at all places by May 20 and in areas where work will take more time it will be halted to ensure safe condition during monsoon."

"Of the 361 asphalt and 140 concrete road work, 60 per cent will be completed by May 15 and the remaining will re-start after monsoon," said Avinash Rao, Chief Engineer.

The places where the BMC took the upgradation of asphalt and concrete roads last October include Khan Abdul Ghafar Khan Road, Maulana Azad Road, Anik Wadala Road, KB Patil Marg, Gateway of India Road, LJ Road, work on Sab TV Road, PL Tandon Marg, Kastur Park and TPS Marg.

"Also, the on-going projects that BMC undertook last October will be completed by May 20 and those which cannot be completed will at least be brought to a stage where they are considered safe," Rao said.

The civic body have almost finished the pothole filling work at all the wards. "Pothole filling and other pre-monsoon related work at all ward levels will be over latest by May 20," Rao said. He said repair works on most of the water and sewer pipelines will also be completed by May 20 and the remaining, if any, will be carried out later.

"Depending on the magnitude of the repairs we would carry out the work. We would try to finish as much repairs as possible by May 20 and the remaining work will re-start by October," SS Korlekar, chief hydraulic engineer said.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) are confident of completing work of at least 13 skywalk projects in the metropolis before the rains set in this year.

"As Meteorological Department predicted an early monsoon this year so we decided to finish work as early as possible without causing any problems to Mumbaikars during monsoon. We would ensure that the roads are safe and the surface is levelled," said Dilip Kavathkar, Joint Director, MMRDA.

The MMRDA officials claim that of the 39 skywalks, work on the 13 skywalks will be completed by the end of May and the remaining will be completed by August-September.

During monsoon, there is lot of rush every where - on railway stations, bus stops and roads. There would be too much crowding at in peak hours and so we are trying our best to complete work of 13 skywalks by end of May, he said.

The 13 skywalks that are expected to be ready by end of May include Andheri (East), Santacruz (East), Bandra (East) extension, Dahisar (East & West), Badlapur (East & West) and Ghatkopar (West) among others.

As far as metro and mono rail projects are concerned, Kavathkar said, there will be no digging activities but transfer of piling work can be carried out during monsoon as it would not affect the movement of the public.