BMC told to make road works dashboard citizen-centric in Mumbai

Maharashtra minister Ashish Shelar instructed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday to strengthen the dashboard on road concretisation works to ensure transparency and usefulness for citizens.

He stated that contractors responsible for damaging utilities be penalised and trenches dug along roads be rebuilt within 15 days.

"The dashboard should enable people to directly upload complaints regarding roads in their locality. It must also provide details of damaged utilities such as water pipelines, power connections, and sewers, with accountability fixed on contractors," Shelar said.

According to the BMC, Mumbai has a total of 2,121 roads, of which 771 have been completed, 574 are partially complete, while work is yet to begin on 776 roads. Out of the 798 km of work under phases 1 and 2, 342 km have been completed.

The H-West ward, which covers Bandra West, Khar West, and Santacruz (West), has 157 roads. Of these, 54 have been completed, 47 partially completed, while work on 60 roads is yet to begin. Nearly 44.47 km of the total 53 km road length has been completed in this ward.

The civic body has developed a dashboard named 'Cement Concretization Roads in Mumbai,' which has been open to the public since September 4. It provides details such as road lists, mapping, photographs of completed work, as well as contact information of contractors and officials, along with future work plans.

Shelar directed that contractors responsible for damaging utilities be penalised, trenches dug along roads be rebuilt within 15 days, and citizens be able to upload complaints of utility damage during the construction of new roads on the dashboard. He also stated that such complaints must be resolved with reports shared with citizens.

He further instructed that before granting permission for new road works, mapping of ongoing sewer, water, and electricity works should be carried out to ensure coordination.

In the H-West ward, where two contractors are engaged, the one delivering timely and quality work should be given preference, the minister said, adding that pending road works should be completed on priority.