Mumbai Congress president and newly elected MP Varsha Gaikwad on Monday joined former BJP corporator Makarand Narwekar in calling for action against contractors for delays in road works.
In a letter to Municipal Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani earlier this week, Narwekar had said: “Delay in the concretisation work will result in people experiencing bumpy rides on substandard roads during the rainy season.”
Gaikwad wrote on X on Monday, “We have been saying since the beginning that the Rs6,080 crore road concretisation work awarded by Khokhe Sarkar is the biggest road scam in Mumbai’s history. A year and a half after contracts were allotted to the friends of this government, not even 20% of the work has been completed. If this government has any morality left, it should also initiate the process of blacklisting contractors immediately.”
However, the civic authorities said in a statement that they get phase-wise permission from the traffic police to carry out roadworks.
Underground utilities such as water pipelines, sewerage lines and storm water drains need to be moved before carrying out concretisation work, they said. “So it takes more time to execute the work. Also, due to the ban on entry of heavy vehicles into the city during the day, the materials required for roadwork are not available on time. The roadwork has to be done only during the night to avoid inconvenience to traffic and citizens. It is not possible to carry out roadworks at a fast pace,” they said in a statement.
