BMC's repair work on 333 roads started, Mumbai to face more traffic jams

Road Department says 134 roads in the western suburbs will be repaired. File pic

Get set for even more traffic jams as the civic body, with an eye on the 2017 civic polls, has started repair work on over 300 roads across the city. The BMC has set a target of 900 roads before the next monsoon, and is going to spend about Rs. 1,000 crore on the entire work.

According to the Road Department, of the 333 roads, 134 are in the western suburbs, 101 in eastern suburbs and 98 are in island city. Road repairs across the city have led to traffic snarls at many places. In the next few days, civic officials are going to start work on more roads.

Speaking to mid-day, Chief Engineer of Road Department, Sanjay Darade said, "There will be some inconvenience for motorists, but once the repair work is completed, motorists will enjoy a smooth ride on the city's roads. We will start repair work on more roads in a phased manner so that it will not bring all the traffic to a halt."

A senior civic official said, "The police have requested us not to carry out work on over 300 roads to avoid traffic jams." Meanwhile, after the second ph­ase of inquiry of 200 roads indicted 16 contractors, the civic body had decided to withhold the payment of R908 crore owed to tainted contractors. The amount includes Rs. 572 crore claimed for road crust work, Rs. 117 crore for transportation charg­es and R62 crore for excavation.

Roads under repair
Repair work has started at Prabodhankar Thackeray Junction near Portuguese Church, NC Kelkar Marg, Babrekar Marg and Gokhale Marg Junction in Dadar, RC Marg in Chembur, SV Road and Linking Road in Bandra, NS Phadke Marg in Andheri and Veera Desai Road in Juhu.