Mumbai: While the heavy rainfall on May 26 exposed the BMC’s inadequate preparedness, civic officials claim that ongoing road concretisation work will not cause any inconvenience to the public. In fact, the budget allocated for pothole repairs has been reduced by 25% compared to last year.
This year, the BMC has floated tenders totalling to Rs 154 crores for filling potholes and maintenance of the Eastern and the Western Express highway along with the service roads.
Under the ambitious Mumbai road concretisation project, the BMC is undertaking a massive upgrade of 701 kilometers of roads across the city in two phases. Phase 1 includes 698 roads spanning 324 km, while Phase 2 covers 1,420 roads across 377 km. The civic body aims to complete 75% of Phase 1 and 50% of Phase 2 by May 31.
As of now, 289 roads under Phase 1 have been completed, while work is ongoing on 285 roads. In Phase 2, 101 roads are complete, and 704 are currently under construction. Work is yet to commence on 114 roads in Phase 1 and 614 roads in Phase 2.
Civic officials stated that while some road concretisation work has been completed end-to-end, the remaining stretches have been brought to a safe stage for completion post-monsoon. To address road maintenance during the rainy season, the BMC has floated a Rs 79-crore tender for pothole repairs—down from Rs 155 crore in 2024—for roads above and below nine metres in width.
Additionally, separate maintenance contracts of Rs 50 crore each have been allocated for the Eastern and Western Express Highways, while service roads will be maintained under contracts worth Rs 12.5 crore each. In 2024, the BMC spent around Rs 205 crore on pothole repairs and highway maintenance.
