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Time of India
5 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
BMC to spend 154cr to fill potholes; lags in desilting
Mumbai: This monsoon, the BMC will spend nearly Rs 154 crore on pothole repairs. BMC officials said this sum is allocated for roads which are yet to be concretised and are under asphalt or paver blocks. Large-scale road concretisation works have been going on in the city for the past two years to make roads pothole-free. Civic officials have justified the allocation by pointing out the amount is significantly lower than last year's Rs 205 crore. Advocate and activist Godfrey Pimenta said while immediate pothole repairs are essential for ensuring road safety during heavy rain, the recurring nature of these fixes highlights systemic inefficiencies. "Temporary solutions should never be prioritised over durable, long-term infrastructure improvements," he said. BMC officials, though, said the allocation is necessary as several roads are still not under the defect liability period (DLP). "The contractor is required to maintain roads under DLP," said an official. Every monsoon, the BMC allocates a certain amount for filling potholes. Residents have questioned the rationale, arguing if road works improve conditions, the need for such a large pothole-filling budget should have reduced further. "As the BMC is spending thousands of crores on road concretisation, one would expect the works to be of superior quality. The BMC plan to spend another Rs 150 crore on filling potholes is completely unjustified. As citizens, we want to know how much has been recovered so far from road concretisation contractors for shoddy work and not completing works on time," said Mandeep Singh Makkar from Chandivali Citizens Forum. Dhaval Shah from the Lokhandwala Oshiwara Citizens Association said the issue is pothole filling doesn't last one monsoon season. "The expenses made for pothole filling should be audited so that taxpayers' funds are used wisely, and the defect liability period should be introduced for a longer period in the contract so that any reappearance makes the contractor liable to refill it at his expense," he said. Meanwhile, even as May has ended, the BMC is yet to complete 100% of its pre-monsoon desilting work. Its own public dashboard states as of June 3 (Tuesday), only 76.96% of the desilting target was achieved, with 7.46 lakh metric tonne of silt removed of the total estimated 9.69 lakh MT. In case of Mithi river, desilting stood at 55.57%. Officials blame the delay on a probe into Mithi desilting contracts.
Time of India
11-05-2025
- General
- Time of India
Gokhale Bridge fully opens after seven years of distress
Mumbai: On Sunday evening, , connecting and West, was made fully operational after nearly seven years since the tragic collapse of a portion of it in July 2018—which claimed two lives and injured the July 3, 2018 disaster, the bridge was shut for almost a year, only to be partially opened in 2019. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now But owing to Covid, the bridge didn't experience major traffic movement. When the pandemic restrictions began to ease by Nov 2022, the bridge was again shut after an inspection revealed that various elements, including RCC columns, tie beams, girders, deck slabs and bearings, were heavily distressed and weakened due to corrosion. Between Nov 2022 and Feb 2024, it was completely shut for Andheri residents, Sunday evening marked the end of a long wait, as the bridge was fully opened to traffic. Over the last seven years, the bridge remained either closed, under repair, or partially accessible—disrupting east-west connectivity. Locals are relieved, especially with the monsoon approaching, as the heavily waterlogged Andheri subway was the only alternative."The bridge's reopening will ease pressure on the Andheri subway," said Karan Jotwani from the Lokhandwala Oshiwara Citizens Association (LOCA). Another resident, Abhijeet Sonone, said there would be a huge traffic backlog on the route on many days, with only one phase open. "But this was still better than the bridge being entirely shut to traffic," he minister Ashish Shelar, who inaugurated the bridge, congratulated local MLA Ameet Satam for regularly following up with the authorities to ensure the bridge was completed. Also present were Andheri (East) MLA Murji Patel and MP Ravindra some residents raised concerns about the quality of the bridge's road surfacing, Satam said the road has been made with mastic asphalt and will settle in time. "That's the way it is made," he municipal commissioners Abhijit Bangar said the administration was clear that it did not want to go beyond the monsoon for finishing the bridge. "We had set May 15 as the target and are happy that our team has worked hard to open it well before time," he said.
