The Indian Express             02.09.2013

BMC to study profile, traffic density of roads

Earlier, only major roads were concretised. The BMC will now study traffic intensity and the potential and significance associated with each road, even if it is a minor road, before undertaking its construction.

"We will consider various criteria before deciding to construct concretised and asphalt roads in future. Typically, major roads (over 30 ft wide) are concretised, but in some cases, a minor road may be important from the usage point of view," said S V R Srinivas, additional municipal commissioner.

Of the total road length of 1,812.39 km in the city, over 500 km has been concretised. The civic administration is planning to take up the remaining roads in a phased manner. The city has almost 1,100 km of minor roads and over 712 km of major roads.

The BMC is also planning to test various technologies for road construction, depending on the usage of each road, said civic officials.

The BMC, which is drafting the final road map for the next five years, will also appoint design consultants and all roads that are over 60 ft wide will be concretised.

With smaller contractors not maintaining roads properly, the BMC is planning to introduce the maintenance clause in the tender. Currently, road contracts are allotted with a defect liability clause, which includes pothole-related repairs. To ensure better quality of roads, the contractors will now need to maintain these roads, including resurfacing and re-laying of 15-20 per cent of the roads every year.

Another modification in the tender norms to ensure participation of big firms is doubling of contract size, said officials. The size of each road contract is likely to be raised to Rs 300 crore from Rs 165 crore.

The BMC is also planning a single window clearance for approval of road works.