Mumbai civic body to start work on 1343 roads in October

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will be starting work reconstruction and resurfacing on 1,343 roads of 507-km length from October this year, a civic official said Wednesday.

The works would be carried out in phases.

"The tendering process for 624 works for 202.31-km roads has already begun," the official said.

He said rest 719 works for roads admesuring 305.08-km would start in subsequent stage.

"These works will begin after monsoon gets over," the official said.

He said tendering process for 62 new road works that need urgent attention is already underway. These works will be awarded next month.

Of these 62 road works, 15 roads are located each in the island city and eastern suburbs while rest are in western suburbs.

The official said a new mechanism is being finalised to ensure that quality is maintained.

"We have taken a slew of measures to fix the accountability on the contractors. We will ensure that there would be no irregularities. The vigilance department of the civic body will also play its role," he said.

There will be a Defect Liability Period for three years, he said.

A defect liability period is a set period of time after a construction project has been completed during which a contractor has the right to return to the site to remedy defects.

The assurance came against the backdrop of a road repair scam that had come to light in 2015 and surfacing of potholes. Many people had died in various parts of the city and extended suburbs in accidents caused by pockmarked roads.

A total of 180 engineers were indicted in the two-phase enquiry conducted by the civic body and six of them were dismissed from the service earlier this year.

The civic body has set a budget of Rs 1,508 crore for the entire resurfacing and reconstruction works, the official said.

He said the BMC had completed the works on 552-km roads during October 1, 2016 to May 2018.