Indian Express 14.10.2010
Cash-starved BMC sanctions 41% funds for road works
sharvaripatwa Tags : Brihanmubai Municipal Corporation, BMC Posted: Thu Oct 14 2010, 04:18 hrs
Mumbai: Despite making a budgetary provision of Rs 1,200 crore for the new road projects this year, the cash-strapped Brihanmubai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is now forced to sanction only 41 per cent of the funds allocated for the same. The finance department of the BMC had earlier said it would be difficult to provide funds for road works this year owing to cash-crunch.“Of the total amount sought, only Rs 500 crore has been sanctioned for the concretisation and asphalting of roads,” said additional municipal commissioner Aseem Gupta. “At least 60-70 km of roads can now be concretised or asphalted,” said a senior official.
The civic administration had allocated Rs 1,200 crore for constructing 100 km of asphalt roads and 50 km of cement concrete roads. Senior officials in the road department had admitted that proposed work were halted for the last 10-11 months for lack of funds. “Cost escalations and variations in the road concretisation and asphalting works carried out in the previous year had led to lack of sufficient funds,” said an official. Cost escalation in the work of about 47 roads had led to a deficit in funds.
The civic body has been taking up the projects of asphalting or concretising roads every year for the past four years.
Mumbai has approximately 2,000 km of roads, of which the BMC has managed to concrete 500 km from 1983. The work on 200 km of roads has was carried out in the past three years. At present, the civic body shells out around Rs 20 lakh to concretise one kilometre of a road. This essentially implies that it will need Rs 30,000 crore to concretise all the roads in the city.
During the monsoon, around Rs 60 crore was spent additionally for filling potholes, and an amount of Rs 110 crore was spent for fixing trenches. Municipal commissiner Swadheen Kshatriya had said the road department is taking up massive maintenance work as the monsoon is taking a retreat. The road officials have been directed to make major VIP roads pothole-free ahead of US President Obama’s visit.
