Mumbai: Think out of the box, engage big, reputable firms to fix roads, advice activists

A huge pothole, near Powai police station on July 6. Pic/Sameer Markande

Mumbai's pothole problem can be resolved if the BMC thinks beyond its traditional pool of contractors and engages reputed organisations with extensive experience in road building and repairing, said activists as citizens face yet another year of crater-filled roads in the city. mid-day on Monday reported that the BMC had tried at least six methods over the past 12 years to fill potholes but nothing worked. It is experimenting with three new technologies this time.

Citizen activist Godfrey Pimenta said he has sent a mail to civic chief I S Chahal demanding that the BMC stop appointing its usual contractors for road repairing. "The BMC needs to float an international tender for road repairing which will help to increase participation of good and established companies," wrote Pimenta in the email. "It's time BMC thought out of the box," he said.

Activist Mushtaq Ansari said BMC should approach big and reputed companies to fix roads in the city. "These companies never compromise with quality, they also work for their names. It will help improve the quality of roads," said Ansari.

Transport expert Jitendra Gupta concurred with Ansari. "Now, the BMC has decided to convert all roads to concrete which will improve the quality. But if the cement roads are not made of proper quality there will also be a problem. Therefore, the BMC should engage reputed companies to repair roads," he said.

There are practical challenges in engaging big organisations, said a former chief engineer of BMC's roads department. "Even I had a talk with a few company representatives. But there was no response from them. The aggregate cost of road repairing works is several hundred crores. But these works are done in small patches and these big companies do not take up such small patches."