Mumbai: Corporator writes to BMC to request policy to deal with illegal trenches

Workers tackle a pipe burst at Goregaon after digging a road. File pic/Anurag Ahire

The issue of illegal trenches on roads has been raised again in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). A corporator has requested that a policy be made to deal with illegal trenches that damage roads across the city. Many corporators and engineers have raised the issue earlier but the corporation is yet to find a solution.

Trenches are narrow ditches dug up for work, usually by utility providers. All utility service providers such as internet, MTNL, gas and electricity companies, etc. can dig up roads only after taking permission from the BMC for repairs, laying of wires, etc. Hence all trenches dug up without permission from the BMC are illegal.

Trenches are an old headache for the BMC. They damage the structure of the road and allow water to penetrate it leading to potholes. The BMC had increased trenching charges manifold to restrict them on new roads, but that has led to illegal trenches.

‘To avoid high charges'
A corporator and group leader of the Samajwadi Party, Rais Shaikh, raised the issue of illegal trenches in the standing committee meeting on Tuesday. He told the committee that illegal trenches were being dug on Shaikh Hafeemuddin Road in Byculla. He also expressed fears that this practice has started all over Mumbai to avoid the high charges of the BMC. Apart from the loss of revenue, the quality of roads also deteriorates.

Shaikh has written a letter to the municipal commissioner and requested him to make a detailed policy to take legal action against digging of roads without permission. "There has to be clarity on who and which rank of officer will file the case on the basis of the loss of BMC. The corporation should draft a policy in such a way that the offence will be non-bailable," said Shaikh.

Issue raised before
Several other corporators had taken up the issue in the general house meeting. Even engineers from the Roads Department have been raising the issue in their meetings and blame them for the pathetic state of the roads. The administration also had informed the Bombay High Court a few years back that the digging is affecting the quality of roads.

The corporation increased the charge of trenches on newly built roads in 2015. The earlier charges were Rs 3,500 for asphalt and Rs 8,000 for cement concrete roads. The corporation started to charge four times more for newly built roads. Trenches on two-year-old roads attract three times charges and two times charges are levied for three-year-old roads. "While the BMC made the changes to restrict the trenches and get better quality material for patchwork, it resulted in illegal trenches," said a corporator.