Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - Live
BMC’s road repairs are ad-hoc, says high court
MUMBAI: The Bombay high cour t on F riday said the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) seemed to be repairing roads “only on an ad-hoc (unplanned) basis” as potholes keep reappearing after every spell of rain. The court directed the corporation to check if its staff was using substandard materials to repair roads. Justice Shantanu Kemkar and Justice MS Karnik also directed the BMC to explore more efficient ways of repairing roads even if they turned out to be more expensive. They ordered the civic body to file an affidavit on these issues within two weeks.
The court was hearing a public interest litigation concerning the poor condition of roads in the city, particularly during the monsoon.
On Friday, the petitioners and the interveners in the case submitted photographs of connecting roads and stretches on both the eastern and western express highways that are riddled with potholes. “What we gather from news reports and photos is that the BMC is only doing ad-hoc work. Why do the repairs carried out by you not last for more than a day or two? Is repair material being misused or is it substandard?” the judges asked.
The Central Roads Research Institute (CRRI) told the court that the corporation would get better results if it used any one of the nine standard methods – and materials – of road repairs that CRRI recommends.
The BMC’s lawyer told the court that the civic body had already tested two of the nine methods and that one of them turned out to be unfeasible while the other proved too expensive.