The Indian Express                        25.03.2013

City roads may not be free of potholes this monsoon, too

Despite the civic administration's claims of a pothole-free monsoon, Mumbaikars will have to brace for bumpy rides during the rainy season. BMC's ambitious project of concretisation and asphalting of roads is yet to take off due to issues over black-listed contractors and red-tape.

While only 30 per cent of road construction work in the western suburbs has been completed so far, in island city, it is yet to begin, and contracts in the eastern suburbs are yet to be allotted.

Though BMC had awarded road contracts worth over Rs 1,000 crore for concretisation and asphalting in the city last year, it has delayed the process for a range of reasons. Civic officials claim that it will now have two months to undertake road construction work; concretisation and asphalting of roads will stop during monsoon (from June until November this year).

While work on south Mumbai roads was delayed following a strict directive from Chief Minister to cancel contracts of blacklisted firms, contracts for eastern suburbs have been delayed due to technical reasons, said officials.

Major road repairs in south Mumbai were put on hold for over a month by BMC, which was deliberating on whether to award a contract to a firm that was under the scanner. Though the contract was finally awarded to the same firm, work on these roads was yet to begin, said officials.

RPS Infraprojects (formerly RP Shah), a company blacklisted by the building proposals department in 2010, submitted the lowest bid for a basket of projects estimated to cost Rs 275 crore for south Mumbai roads. It bid with Prakash Engineering and Supreme Infra.

The contract was part of a Rs 530-crore bouquet of road repair and construction projects in south Mumbai. This entails concretising and asphalting over 65 km of roads in Churchgate, Fort, Marine Drive, Dadar, Worli and other areas. Under this, 129 roads will be re-laid. Of these, 27 major ones will be concretised and 102 small and arterial ones will be asphalted. The projects were to be awarded last year after a standard tendering procedure.

"We are planning to expedite the repair process to ensure better roads during monsoon. We still have two months before monsoon begins," said G M Agarwal, deputy chief engineer of BMC's roads department.

In the eastern suburbs, the process to appoint contractors for concretisation of 24 roads at a cost of around Rs 85 crore and asphalting of 106 roads at cost of Rs 168 crore was yet to be completed, said an official. "The delay is due to paper-work and bureaucratic hurdles," said a senior civic official.

The Indian Express                        24.03.2013

MMRDA budget focuses on infra projects outside city

MMRDA presented a Rs 4,028 crore budget with thrust on improving infrastructure in satellite areas of Mumbai. However, cash rich agency has been steadily reducing money it is spending on improving region's infrastructure.

In the past four years, the budget allocation has come down from Rs 6,653 crore in 2009-10 to a comparatively measly Rs 4,028 crore this year. MMRDA officials, however, claimed that this means the agency is rationalising its expenses and spending only on realistic projects.

The budget was approved by CM Prithviraj Chavan Saturday. The largest chunk earmarked is for the extended Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Project (MUIP), for which Rs 622 crore will be spent on creation of infrastructure in areas such as Thane, Kalyan, Dombivali and Vasai. Under the plan, the agency will build six flyovers, a creek bridge and a 90-km road network.

MMRDA has also kept aside Rs 988 crore to complete ongoing projects in Mumbai. It has allocated Rs 600 crore for the Chembur-Wadala-Jacob Circle monorail, Rs 200 crore for Santacruz-Chembur Link Road, Rs 98 crore for Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar elevated Metro and Rs 55 crore for Anik-Panjarpol and Panjarpol-Ghatkopar link roads. Rs 35 crore has been allocated for Milan subway rail over-bridge and Sahar elevated road. MMRDA expects to complete these in the next 12 months.

"MMRDA has consciously made a large provision for development of the metropolitan region. It is necessary to complement the development showcased by the city today," said Dilip Kawathkar, MMRDA spokesperson.

No new projects have been proposed this year, with officials claiming that their efforts were to complete pending transport projects.

Feasibility study planned for

1. 29.7-km ring road around Kalyan

2. 12-km ring road around Bhiwandi

3. 5.8-km Khopoli bypass

4. Development of NH-4 from Takka colony to Palaspe Phata

5. 37-km Shirgaon-Padgha-Titwala- Badlapur link

6. 8-km Neral-Dasturi Naka-Matheran road

7. 3.2-km Mankoli to Motagaon-Dombivali link road

8. 1.8-km Revas-Karanja bridge