Mumbai: The wait for Mumbai’s roads to be fully concretised is getting longer. During an inspection of ongoing road works on Tuesday, deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde said that the ambitious project to concretise 700km of roads will only be completed by April 2027.
When the project was first announced on July 23, 2022, Shinde had directed the BMC to complete the work within two years. Now, more than two years later, the finish line is still another two years away. Last year, another 350kms of road concretisation works were taken up. Tuesday’s inspection began near Bombay Hospital junction in Marine Lines, followed by a visit to R.S. Sapre Marg in Kalbadevi, Jame Jamshed Road in Matunga (F-North ward), and Road No. 21 in Chembur (M-West ward), among others. Shinde also interacted with local residents in these areas.
The Rs 12,000+ crore works is considered Shinde’s pet project. “These concrete roads should have been built in Mumbai years ago, but corruption prevented it,” said Shinde, taking a swipe at the previous Thackeray-led administration that controlled BMC. He added that once completed, the concretised roads would not require repairs for 25-30 years.
“The permanent solution for pothole-free roads is concrete roads. That’s why, after becoming CM, we decided to switch to cement concrete roads. Once concretised, roads won’t need to be dug up again, nor will potholes form. We are committed to delivering a pothole-free Mumbai,” he said, adding that there will be zero tolerance for poor-quality work.
“So far, BMC has imposed fines of Rs 3.5 crore on contractors for substandard work. Any contractor found doing faulty work will be disqualified,” he said. However, concrete works has also drawn criticism from residents over its execution. Several stretches remain dug up, and citizens continue to flag safety concerns.