Mumbai News: BMC Races Against Time To Make Roads Motorable By May 31 Amid Massive Concretisation Drive

Mumbai is in the maze of roads under concreting, however, the BMC has increased its work momentum to meet its deadline of May 31 to make all the roads motorable.

In the last seven days, 2,650 Ready-mix Concrete (RMC) Mixer Trucks were used, while on an average daily 378 such mixers are been used, supplying pavement quality concrete (PQC), a statement released by the BMC on Sunday said. A total of 18,560 cubic meters of PQC has been utilised till now, pushing the work towards completion.

The BMC has undertaken an ambitious Rs 12,000 crore project to cement concretise all roads in Mumbai, with an objective to not only have pothole-free roads, but minimise road repairs for years to come. The project is undertaken in two phases- phase I with 700 roads to concretise and phase II with 1,421 roads. 

As per data accessed by The Free Press Journal, as of April 23, of total 700 roads under the first phase, concretisation of 269 roads is completed and work for 431 roads is in progress. While of total 1,421 roads undertaken in the second phase, 63 are completed and 1,358 are in progress. 

Additional Municipal Commissioner (Project) Abhijit Bangar, who is overseeing the project and has been regularly visiting road work sites and RMC plants, said that the BMC is ensuring the quality of work at the same time meeting the May 31 deadline.

The project was started under the leadership of Dy CM Eknath Shinde in 2023, who was the CM then. Shinde who inspected the ongoing road concencretisation work himself last week vowed that Mumbai will be pothole-free as all roads concretisation will be done by 2027 years and that there will be no repairs required for the next 25 years.

For roads that remain unconcretised before the monsoon, interim measures such as geopolymer filling, rapid hardening concrete, micro-surfacing, mastic, and infrared technology will be used to keep them pothole-free. 

-Mumbai has total 7 civic zones

-Under phase 1, road works of 5 zones are undertaken- Zone III to VII. 

Phase 2 includes all 7 zones. 

Progress report of April 23 says-

Phase 1

- Total 700 roads undertaken 

-Concretisation completed of 269 roads

-Work in progress of 431 roads 

Phase 2

- Total roads undertaken 1,421 

- Concretisation completed of 63 roads

- Work in progress of 1,358 roads