Mumbai: BMC to spend Rs 136 cr on pre-monsoon road repairs

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to spend Rs 136 crore on pre-monsoon road maintenance work this year. This is the first time that BMC will get minor damages on the roads repaired before the monsoon. The civic body has only repaired potholes and unbalanced stretches before this in pre-monsoon works. Every year, the civic administration allocates Rs 2 crore to each administrative ward for pre-monsoon road maintenance. This year, however, the BMC has invited a tender for the maintenance of roads in the entire city, said an official.

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"This year, we will undertake pre-monsoon road maintenance proactively, with new technology. We will use reactive asphalt and rapid hardening concrete for better results," said Ulhas Mahale, deputy municipal commissioner. Unlike every year in pre-monsoon work when the BMC has only repaired potholes and uneven patches of roads, this year, for the first-time, it will repair patches with minor damages that could turn into potholes during monsoon. "If patches of road with bad surfaces are repaired before monsoon, the chances of potholes are less. That's why we have decided to identify bad patches and repair them before monsoon," said another official.

According to news reports, the BMC used five technologies for potholes repairs in the past 13 years. This includes the Jet Patch machine in 2010-11, then in 2015-16 the Austrian and Israeli asphalt mixture for instant pothole repairs. The BMC has also used hot mix and cold mix for regular pothole repair. Some civic corporations use hot mix but this can't be used in the daytime due to traffic congestion in the city. This year, the BMC will not allocate Rs 2 crore to each administrative ward for pre-monsoon maintenance of roads. It will allocate them only Rs 50 lakh each for minor road repairs.

Rs 50 lakh
Amount to be given to each administrative ward