Watch out for roads to hell

MUMBAI, May 30: With the monsoon just a week away, going by the weather bureau's word, Mumbai may well suffer traffic snarls due to the mos...

MUMBAI, May 30: With the monsoon just a week away, going by the weather bureau’s word, Mumbai may well suffer traffic snarls due to the most important work of the century the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has undertaken — paving old tar roads with cement.

Almost 40 per cent of the half-done roads may spell disaster not only for motorists but also pedestrians who will have no footpaths to walk on and will stray onto these roads, risking their lives.

This is because of the 319 projects for which the BMC had invited tenders last year, almost all were awarded within the stipulated time but a few were held back due to bureaucratic delays in the cement and concrete roads department.

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So the delay in awarding them will be reason for concern this monsoon. Sources in the BMC said nearly 75 per cent of the concretisation is over in the city while a 80 per cent of it is complete in the suburbs. R C Barfiwala, chief engineer (Cement, Concrete Roads and Traffic) said in its first phase, the BMC is expected to complete major concreting work by the first week of June. Minor works like laying footpaths are expected to be done by the end of the second week in the second phase.

Asked whether this delay will have any impact on traffic, he replied in the negative. Barfiwala, however, affirmed that pedestrian movement may be affected to a certain extent as miscellaneous works such as footpath laying will only be completed a week after the actual cement slabs are ready.

He also attributed the chaos on the roads to massive desilting of culverts and nullahs which the BMC has begun in full swing to prevent flooding. “They will remove the silt and just dump it on the roads. That will also have to be cleared,” Barfiwala added.

The chief engineer said the BMC felt there would be problems with the labourers as most of them "tend to go back to their native places during summer vacations". Municipal commissioner Girish Gokhale also agreed that there was some delay in awarding contracts for the concretisation of roads. However, he was hopeful that most of the work would be completed by June 10.