The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) filled 31,398 potholes in the city of Mumbai, measuring 1,56,910 square miles, with 2,696 metric tons of bitumen cold mix, in a period of 5 months: between April 9 and September 8, 2021—[following the monsoon season]. BMC stated, “Due to the properties of bitumen in asphalt roads, potholes are a regular occurrence due to contact with water during monsoons.”
However, every year, all 24 administrative wards in Mumbai are allotted only a certain amount for the potholes that emerge every monsoon that have become a repetitive problem in the city (The BMC had set up a special asphalt plant in Worli just to develop a cold mixture for filling them):
Rs 2 crores ($266,815.60 USD) for TENDING to potholes
Of these,
Rs 1.5 crores ($191,905.10 USD) for PREVENTING potholes
The rest,
Rs 50 lakh ($74,910.50 USD) for FILLING potholes
How does the BMC plan to combat the pothole problem long-term?
The BMC is now pushing for cement concretization (CC) of about 5000 internal roads in the city to reduce the problem of potholes. In view of the fact that potholes are created on the asphalt roads due to rain water, BMC issued a press statement on September 13th that the municipal administration has adopted a policy of cement concreting of major roads as well as small roads of 6 meters width. Asphalt roads were not sustainable during the monsoons, hence it has decided to replace them with CONCRETE ROADS.
“Previously, we would CC only important roads, chiefly the BEST routes with a width of about 18 meters, now we have decided to cement all internal roads as asphalted roads were found to wilt during monsoons leading to potholes. This work of [paving roads in concrete] would be taken up in phases with roughly an estimated 100 kms of road to be cemented every year,” said Manoj Kamath, Deputy Chief Engineer (Roads)-BMC.
For VIDEO titled “Mumbai roads: Despite 17,200 complaints,
BMC official says not a single pothole in city”,
click on image above or link below.
What does this mean for the city?
The total 2,000 kms (1,242 miles) under the jurisdiction of the BMC—almost all asphalted roads—will be paved with concrete. As a result of a policy set 10 years ago, only main roads—about 750 kms (466 miles)—are paved in concrete, including highways and main bus routes in the city.
The BMC has also decided to phase out the rectangular paver blocks—both in roads, pavements and in the side shifts (the patch between roads and pavements)—since they lead to uneven patches and potholes and encourage unauthorized diggings by various utility providers.
Earlier, only the central portion of the road would be cemented but the side shifts would either be asphalted or paver blocked. But, now the BMC proposes to CC even the side shifts, Kamath says.
How will the new cement roads accommodate the various utility lines?
“Asphalt roads have not performed well. Worldover most cities have concretised long back and have found CC roads to be far superior because of the design life of 50-70 years. It’s a proven fact that CC roads perform substantially better with heavy traffic roads with high stop and stand traffic mobility. This happened not just in Europe and North American cities but also in most Southeast Asian countries,” said Pankaj Joshi, Principal Director-Non-Profit Urban Center Mumbai.
Besides telephone cable lines, the network of water, drainage, and sewage lines, electricity run below the road network in the city.
“The limitation with a city like Mumbai is that you cannot dig up and repair all the roads at one go; at the most you can take up 2-3% of the whole city. So, it’s going to be a long process because CC roads take up 3-6 month programs to lay the roads. Concrete roads are the need of the hour. They may cost fractionally more, but considering that they have a long design life of 50-70 years, they are a good investment of public investment in infrastructure,” said Joshi.
With Mumbai at a critical stage, where it is planning for the effects of climate change, the concretization of roads has to be carefully examined. Concrete is a rigid substance and therefore impermeable, presenting a unique challenge. The plan would have to include the safety of road users whose requirements could evolve over time, therefore it might be necessary to explore other options. “If we are going to concrete every street, then it is critical to design every street element just right, to make it safer for all road users and to avoid the risk of being locked into a poor and unsafe street space for a long period”, said Dhawal Ashar, Head of Integrated Transport-World Resources Institute.
The BMC said it has chalked out a 5-year action plan to cement most of the 5000 internal roads in the city. “The BMC has the money, people, technology, and equipment, but if quality roads still fail to elude the Mumbaikars. The real issue is lack of supervision, our system is so corrupt; everyone knows which roads are being supervised by which engineer, and yet no action is taken. Lack of political will translates into lack of supervision of projects by civic engineers resulting in shoddy implementation of infrastructure projects. Annual spending in crores for just filling of potholes is a lucrative business for ruling political parties here. Not surprisingly, building long lasting roads does not interest the powers that be. If the political parties really want good roads they can easily get it done, but the intent needs to be there,” said Rais Shaikh, Leader-Samajwadi Party, BMC and Legislator, Bhiwandi—also plagued by potholes.
The civic body further added that the corporation was taking several measures to solve the problem of potholes on the roads within the BMC limits:
31,398 potholes on the roads within the limits of the Municipal Corporation
[poorly] filled in 5 months, 2021: Citizens promptly exposed the pathetic condition of
Mumbai roads by posting pictures on social media.
BMC launches new app for potholes
New app image. BCM
After embarrassment on social media (Yashwant Jadhav, Standing Committee Chairman-BMC had said there were “no potholes in the city”, but citizens promptly exposed the poor conditions of Mumbai roads by posting pictures on social media), the civic body came out with a new mobile app where people can register their pothole-related complaints. Meanwhile, it is surprising that the civic body already has measures in place for citizens in place for the same … to launch complaints to the city! Naturally, it was met with opposition to the new/duplicate measure:
• Already has an app
• Twitter handle
• Website
• Helpline number
BMC tweeted, “Mumbai, we’ve found a ‘hole’-some solution to pothole woes! See a cavity? Report it with the new “MyBMC Pothole Fixit” app which identifies its location & keeps you updated on the resolution of your complaint. Together, let’s smoothen the road to progress: bit.ly/potholefixit…
… The work of filling the potholes on the roads is being undertaken by the Corporation. For this, the cold mix constructed at the Corporation’s asphalt plant at Worli is regularly supplied to the 24 administrative divisions of the Corporation as per their demand.”
The corporation has appointed contractors with contracts of a biennial nature. Officials added that in addition, the project roads and the roads with defect liability period are filled by the concerned designated contractor within a limited time as per the terms and conditions of the tender as well as free of cost. No remuneration is given by the corporation for filling these pits. According to BMC data, a total of 2,696 metric tons (1,07,843 bags) have been distributed to 24 administrative department offices through the asphalt plant of the corporation. So far, 22,897 pits have been filled by the regular workers of the corporation available in the divisional office. The total area of these dug pits is 49, 919 square meters. Also, 8,501 pits have been filled within the limits of 24 administrative division offices by the contractor appointed to fill the pits. The total area of these dug pits is 1,06,985 square meters.
BMC added: In the future, more roads will be cement concreted and the incidence of potholes will be reduced.
For the Citizen Matters Online Magazine article titled “BMC will cement roads to avoid potholes. Is it a good strategy?”, please go to: https://mumbai.citizenmatters.in/bmc-will-cement-roads-to-avoid-potholes-is-it-a-good-strategy-26420
For the India Today Magazine article titled “BMC says over 30,000 potholes in Mumbai fixed within 5 months this year”, please go to: www.indiatoday.in/cities/mumbai/story/bmc-potholes-mumbai-fixed-five-months-2021-1851202-2021-09-10
For VIDEO titled “Mumbai roads: Despite 17,200 complaints, BMC official says not a single pothole in city”, please go to: www.indiatoday.in/india/video/mumbai-roads-despite-17-200-complaints-bmc-official-says-not-a-single-pothole-in-city-1597347-2019-09-09?jwsource=cl