Mumbai: BMC again calls for bids to concretise 400 km of roads

Potholes near Airoli toll naka. BMC says concretisation will solve the problem. File pic/Sameer Markande

Nearly three weeks after it binned road tenders worth Rs 5,806 crore citing poor response, the BMC has invited fresh bids to concretise 400 km of asphalt roads at Rs 6,078 crore. While the average cost escalation is about 5 per cent, it's a bit higher for the western suburbs, said civic officials. The BMC plans to convert all asphalt roads in Mumbai to concrete ones in the next two-and-a-half years to reduce potholes.

On Thursday, the BMC invited five tenders - one each for the south city and the eastern suburbs, and three for the western suburbs. The road length in each tender is the same as the earlier one. With an increase of Rs 272 crore, officials said the cost has gone up by 3 per cent for the south city, while it has soared 4 per cent for easter suburbs. The figure is 5.2 per cent for western suburbs. "The number of stormwater drains on both sides of roads is high in western suburbs compared to other areas," said P Velrasu, additional municipal commissioner, explaining the rationale behind the higher costs for western suburbs.

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Earlier, officials had said that stringent conditions laid down by the BMC to ensure quality work led to the poor response last time and that tenders would be reinvited after reassessing current rules and regulations and making changes to them. But officials have now said that there are no changes in tender conditions.

On August 2, the BMC floated five tenders worth Rs 5,806 crore for the conversion of 400 km of roads. It extended the deadline twice before scrapping the tenders on November 1 after the corporation got only one bid for the island city, two for the eastern suburbs. Of the three tenders floated for the work in the western suburbs, one got responses from two bidders and the other two got one bid each.

As Mumbaikars suffered due to potholes in the monsoon, prompting Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to intervene, the BMC had in July said that it would concretise all asphalt roads in the city in the next two-and-half years. Of Mumbai's road network of 2,500 km, only 900 km of roads have been concretised so far. Apart from the 400 km for which the BMC has re-invited bids, 423 km of roadwork will be taken up before the next monsoon.