Mumbai: Just 68-km roads concreted this year, official data shows

Despite the tall claims of the chief minister and assurances from the BMC, the concreting of roads is going on at a snail's pace with only 68 km of roads completed in the past 12 months. But this was not the picture before. Interestingly, the BMC had concreted on an average 150 km roads annually in the past few years.

The delayed rain saved the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) image in June. But as the rain showed its full glory in mid-July, the roads in Mumbai turned into the lunar surface. The same old story of pothole-riddled roads repeated. Last year, the BMC faced the peoples' wrath for the bad state of roads across the city and in July 2022, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde promised that they would concrete every road in the city within two years.

In a press note issued on July 23, 2022 the BMC mentioned that the roads will be rid of potholes within next two years and mentioned that out of 2,050 km of roads, 989.84 km of roads are already concretised, the contract of 237 km of roads was already given, the tender process of 400 km of roads was ongoing and the work order for the rest of the roads was to be issued in 2023-24.

A road being concreted near Mantralaya. File pic/Atul Kamble

Cut to July 2023. The BMC issued a press note on July 24 mentioning it has filled up more than 6,000 potholes. The number of concreted roads increased by merely 68 km, from 990 km to 1,058 km.The BMC awarded a contract for the concreting of 397 km roads in February 2023, but hardly any of those were completed before the monsoon. The process for the rest of the roads hasn't started yet.

BMC chief Iqbal Singh Chahal promised the Bombay High Court last September that all roads will be concreted within two years. But surprisingly, the speed of concretation has not been higher than that of previous years. In 2021-22, the BMC finished concreting 196 km of roads. In 2020-21, the BMC completed the concreting on 123 km of roads. The BMC had completed concreting around 950 km of roads in a decade with an average speed of 150 km of roads every year.

"Why is the state government silent on potholes on roads in Mumbai? The matter has to be investigated by the Enforcement Directorate since all previous efforts of BMC have failed miserably," said Godfrey Pimenta, an activist. He added that the corruption which is deep rooted in BMC will require serious introspection by none other than the Chief Minister himself.

"There were issues of shifting underground utilities into ducts. The works of the new contract started in April-May, they are incomplete and brought to the "safe" stage. The remaining work will start after the monsoon so the number of kilometres may increase rapidly after the monsoon," said a BMC official.

The road works cannot be done in four months of monsoon from June to September. If any road work remains incomplete by May 30, it should be brought to the "safe" stage. The remaining work starts after monsoon. So the Roads Department gets only eight months to complete the work. Chahal, administrator of the BMC and P Velarasu, additional commissioner, remained unavailable for comments despite repeated attempts to contact them.

Promise to the HC

BMC commissioner Chahal had told the high court that 15 agencies are in charge of at least 500 km of roads in Mumbai. These agencies are MMRDA, MMRCL, MSRDC, PWD, MHADA, MIDC, AAI, BARC, RCF, Navy, Railway, SRA, forest authority and private layouts. It will take three years if other agencies hand over their roads to the civic corporation.

Speed of work

Length of roads concretised by BMC in 2020-21 123 km
Length of roads concretised by BMC in 2021-22196 km

2,050 km
Total length of roads in Mumbai

July 2022
Month, year by when 990 km was concreted

July 2023
Month by when 1,058 km was concreted

990
Length in km of concrete roads in 2022