Quick fix on newly concretised Dahisar road triggers outrage
Mumbai: Patchwork repairs on the newly concretised Holy Cross Road in Dahisar triggered public outrage on Thursday, with former BMC Congress corporator Sheetal Mhatre slamming the civic body for masking, rather than fixing construction flaws.
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Under phase one of the concretisation project of Mumbai roads, Holy Cross Road was taken up for repairs. Barely a few months ago, the concrete road was laid, but residents were shocked when a day ago they saw mastic asphalt being laid on the same concrete road.
The reason for it, the BMC said, was the absence of a drainage line, owing to which water was stagnating. As a temporary fix, the contractor is laying asphalt. "Under the Mumbai beautification plan, the footpath was to be laid along with the drainage line.
Therefore, when the road was proposed for concretisation, the laying of the drainage line wasn't taken up. However, now as the work is completed, it has come to light that the final road level isn't proper.
As a temporary measure, the mastic is being laid, but we are trying to see what could be a permanent solution to this. That work would be done once the monsoon months are over," said a BMC official.
Mhatre, however, explaining the mess, said the fact that the final road level wasn't proper only came to light now as the rains have arrived.
"There is water stagnation at multiple spots on the new road. The root issues were clear — poorly laid PQC (Pavement Quality Concrete), incorrect camber and slope gradient, and inadequate stormwater inlets. Instead of correcting these as per tender norms, the contractor has simply applied mastic asphalt patching — a cost-cutting shortcut to avoid proper rework," said Mhatre.
Residents fear that the stopgap solution will lead to quicker road damage, especially during monsoon. However, BMC said that if these measures weren't taken, it could have led to water accumulation again on a heavy rain day.
As a part of the BMC's ambitious concretisation project, close to 700km of Mumbai roads are being concretised at a cost of over Rs 12,000 crore.
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