Mumbai: A freshly laid concrete road in Oshiwara, Andheri, was dug up on Wednesday, angering residents who endured months of dust and debris barely a few months ago while construction of the road was under way.
After completing concretisation of Indra Darshan Road around three months ago, the BMC began concretising another road in the area. Then, on Wednesday, residents were taken aback to once again see that debris and large stones were all out as Indra Darshan Road was being excavated.
“We were shocked to see the road ripped apart and the stones exposed again,” said resident Sujoy Ghosh, whose building gate opens onto the road that was dug up through the middle.
Ghosh said he demanded the utility contractor share the copy of the permission received from the BMC that allowed him to dig a road laid just a few months ago.
“There was no signage whatsoever by the agency digging the road, and details of the start date and end date of the works too weren’t mentioned,” he said.
BMC officials confirmed that permission was granted to Adani Electricity to carry out the work due to a fault in an underground cable. A copy of the permission dated March 29 stated, “This permit allows Adani Electricity to excavate a 10-metre section of Indra Darshan Road for cable repairs under the conditions specified.”
Conditions included that sufficient security guards and traffic wardens must be deployed, water entrances and chambers with openings must be properly covered to prevent debris from entering, and the site in-charge must submit daily reports to the BMC engineer.
Rakesh Coelho, vice president of BJP (north west district), said that there was barely any supervision being done at the site even when a recently laid road was dug up. “Now that the road is dug up, there’s no guarantee that it would be reinstated properly, and locals would once again have to put up with the same deteriorated quality of road in no time,” said Coelho.