Mumbai: BMC converting asphalt roads into concrete ones to fix pothole problem

Potholes in Andheri west. File Pic/ Shadab Khan

The Mumbai civic body has launched a mission to convert the asphalt roads in the city into cement-concrete ones in a bid to rid them of potholes, a chronic problem in monsoon responsible for many accidents and casualties. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) seems also keen to avoid public wrath ahead of the crucial civic elections, the schedule of which is yet to be announced, over the politically sensitive pothole issue.

Of the 2,055 km road network in Mumbai, the BMC has already converted more than 50 per cent of asphalt roads into cement concrete (CC) ones, according to a senior official.

BMC Additional Municipal Commissioner P Velarasu said the civic body has converted roads measuring 1,030 km into CC roads and is aiming to cover the entire network in the next five years.

"Going by the current pace, we have targeted to convert all the remaining roads into CC roads in the next five years," Velarasu told PTI.

He added that while asphalt roads are suitable for dry climates, they don't sustain for a long time where there is heavy rainfall and water seepage. Also, it is an international trend to construct CC roads to address the problem of potholes.

Citizens, especially motorists, face a lot of inconvenience due to the roads pockmarked with potholes. Motorists complain of getting physically and mentally exhausted during the journey due to potholes and also vehicles get damaged. Hence, they have decided to speed up the work of constructing CC roads by replacing asphalt, he said.

The civic body had received over 10,340 complaints regarding potholes with a collective size of 17,000 square meters on the city roads till mid-June from April 1 this year.

Compared to the same period last year, the number of new potholes on Mumbai roads is less this year, officials said.

For registering complaints about potholes, the civic body has developed an app, besides providing a facility to lodge complaints through websites, social media, and a toll-free helpline.

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The BMC has given around Rs 2 crore each to 24 wards for fixing the potholes.

The BMC claims that it repairs craters within 48 hours of receiving complaints and uses a cold mix, a specialised asphalt, for the purpose. The civic body had supplied 422 tons of dry cold mix to the 24 wards across Mumbai till last week.

The civic body has been constructing CC roads for the past several decades, but a fewer number of roads were converted to CC roads till the past few years.

According to the civic body, it had converted over 800 kilometres of roads into CC roads in the last 5-6 years.

Velarasu said the BMC has decided to go for all CC roads despite high construction costs as compared to asphalt roads to overcome the menace of potholes. However, considering their life cycle, the CC roads prove more cost-effective.

If you see the life cycle cost, cement concrete roads are cheaper. Once built, they don't need to be looked after again provided they are constructed properly," he added.

He said that another reason for switching to CC roads from asphalt roads is the long lifespan of the CC roads though they incur 40-50 per cent more cost.

"Compared to the 4-5 year lifespan of asphalt roads, CC roads have a lifespan of at least 20 years, and if constructed properly they could last even 30 years," Velarasu added.

Officials said asphalt roads develop potholes after a few years due to heavy vehicle flow and water seepage. "Due to pressure of heavy vehicles, roads develop cracks and during rains, water seeps in from all the sides, developing craters," they added.

Being a coastal city, Mumbai receives around 3,000 mm of rainfall per year.

He said the civic body is giving priority to bigger roads for converting them into CC roads along with smaller ones.

"To avoid repeated digging of roads, BMC will keep flexible pavements for various utilities like sewage lines, water pipelines, power lines and telephone wires, alongside the CC roads," Velarasu added.

Experts are also of the view that CC roads are the "only solution" for Mumbai to address the pothole issue. They, however, expressed apprehension that CC roads might flood due to the "lack of percolation".

"In fact, the lack of percolation is one of the reasons for increased flooding in Mumbai suburbs. Also, all societies now either concretise their compounds or put tiles, which prevents percolation," said AV Shenoy, a transport activist.

He also said the BMC has taken care of the non-percolation issue in BRIMSTOWAD (a project to improve stormwater drain network and capacity) by increasing the run-off coefficient from earlier 0.5 to 1.0, but in many places, the SW drains are not sufficient to carry the rainwater during a heavy downpour.

Velarasu, however, said the water percolation rate will decrease due to the building of CC roads. We are going to integrate the CC roads with the soak pit," he added.

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