Hindustan Times 21.09.2010
`5,383 cr for roads in 5 yrs, potholes stayAs you endure your bone-jarring ride to work, you may find it difficult to believe that the civic body has spent Rs 5,383 crore — well over $1 billion — on Mumbai’s roads over the last five years. And this doesn’t even include money spent on the eastern and western express highways; the Public Works Department manages those.
Compare this with the total cost of the 95-km Mumbai-Pune Expressway — Rs 1,600 crore, a third of the city’s road expenditure over the past five years. The eight-lane, fully concretised road was built in mountainous terrain and is in good condition.
Data collected by Hindustan Times shows the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) spent more than Rs 1,000 crore on an average every year on constructing, maintaining, widening and repairing roads between April 2005 and March 2010.
Of this, Rs 3,480 crore was spent on building or widening roads and Rs 1,900 crore on maintenance. Given that the city has 1,900 km of roads, this works out to Rs 2.80 crore a kilometre.
More than Rs 150 crore was spent only on filling potholes. This year alone, since April, the BMC has pent Rs 60 crore on pothole repairs. Experts said this huge spend wasn’t justified given the poor results — most roads crumble no sooner than the monsoon begins every year.
