The BMC's memory is notoriously short-lived. Despite having banned paver blocks for road construction and repairs in January last year, it has resorted to using them to quickly patch up potholed stretches
Workers lay paver blocks as a temporary measure on SV Road in Goregaon West. Pics/ Pradeep Dhivar
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The BMC's memory is notoriously short-lived. Despite having banned paver blocks for road construction and repairs in January last year, it has resorted to using them to quickly patch up potholed stretches.
As several roads in Mumbai have begun to come undone under the onslaught of the monsoon, the BMC has been under fire from all quarters to quickly repair them. But its hack job may draw more flak.
Early this morning, mid-day found road contractors using paver blocks to fill potholes in at least two locations in the western suburbs. Between 1 am and 3 am, we visited SV Road in Goregaon West, SV Road junction in Malad West and Andheri-Kurla Road below the Andheri Metro station.
All of Andheri-Kurla Road is to be concretised, but for now, citizens will have to make peace with paver blocks
Hack job
At the MTNL junction on SV Road in Goregaon West, workers were hurriedly fixing potholes with paver blocks. A worker claimed it was a temporary measure. "The road surface is still wet owing to rain. It's difficult to fill the potholes using the cold mixture as it would get washed off in a bout of rain."
This stretch of SV Road had over 20 potholes.
On a 100-m stretch of Andheri-Kurla Road below the Andheri Metro station, workers were attending to a caved manhole and drainage chamber with paver blocks. The work was apparently undertaken by the local ward office on the orders of Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke.
"The road had become uneven, inconveniencing motorists and buses. Even pedestrians were finding it difficult owing to the sewage spilling on the road from the choked-up drain," said Jeetu Shah, a social worker who was present at the site.
The SV Road junction in Malad West has around 15 potholes
Stop-gap arrangement
A road engineer at the spot the BMC's top priority was to make the road motorable. "We can't use any material that can be washed away in the rain. Hence, we chose paver blocks for the time being. We have planned concretisation of the entire stretch of Andheri-Kurla Road, but the approval is pending with the traffic police department."
At the SV Road junction in Malad West, BMC staff were levelling the road, which has 15-20 potholes. A road department official at the site said the potholes would be filled once the rain abates. "We have cleaned the potholes and made the surface even. If we get a few hours of a continuous dry spell, we will immediately repair the potholes with the cold mixture material."
VP Chithore, chief engineer of BMC's roads department, was unavailable for comment.
Paver blocks were introduced in 2002 and banned last year after they were found to be responsible for slowing down traffic and making the road infrastructure crumble.
The BMC has imported 38 tonnes of material worth R70 lakh for road repairs from two firms -- Eco Green Infrastructure Development of Austria, and Smart Age Products from Israel. Civic officials claimed that this material would help with quickly fixing potholes.
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