The Times of India            04.02.2014

BMC to float tenders worth Rs 937 crore to spruce up roads in the western suburbs

MUMBAI: With the Lok Sabha elections round the corner, a proposal to spruce up roads in western suburbs worth Rs 937 crore will soon come up for approval before the civic standing committee. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will undertake concretisation and asphalting of 152 roads in western suburbs.

"Roads in western suburbs from Santacruz to Dahisar will be resurfaced as they have been damaged due to high amount of traffic, wear and tear, digging by utilities and leakages from water mains. While doing this, the upgradation of storm water drains, sewage lines will also be undertaken," said a senior official from the roads department.

Under this project, 37 roads will be concretised, the contract of which has been allotted to the consortium of Ms J Kumar Infraprojects - Ms KR Constructions at the cost of Rs 463.34 crore.

The defect liability period for the concretisation of these roads and side strips will be 10 and five years respectively. The contractor will also have to fill the trenches dug by the utility companies, the cost of which will be met from the deposits collected by the companies.

Total 115 roads will be asphalted at the cost of Rs 475 crore. Of them, 33 traffic junctions will be upgraded with mastic asphalt, while 82 other roads will be repaired with asphalt. The contract of these works has been allotted to Ms KR Constructions and the consortium of Ms RPS Infraprojects - Ms Relcon Infraprojects (joint partners).

The defect liability period for the mastic asphalt roads and asphalt roads will be 10 and five years respectively.

However, corporators have alleged that due to delay in issuing tenders, these road works will not be completed before monsoon causing inconvenience to people. Congress corporator Pravin Chheda said, "The tenders should have been issued three-four months back in order to complete them before the start of monsoon. It means most of these works would start after the end of monsoon this year."

While road works in city and western suburbs have been undertaken on priority basis, eastern suburbs continued to be neglected by the civic administration and ruling alliance, he added.