BMC school repair work lags behind

Though the officers of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation claim that they are working progressively for the betterment of municipal schools so as to provide quality education to children, the ground reality is very different.

According to an official report, the civic body undertook 80 major school repairs work of all 24 wards of the BMC amounting to Rs200 crores, but most of the schools have not even crossed 50 per centage of repairing work even after a year.

The civic body delegated the school repairing work to the authorities of School Infrastructure Cell (SIC). A senior civic officer from the SIC cell stated that we have to take the building has to be handed over by the BMC before work can start.

“Also, when the education department informs us about any school which needs urgent repairs, we include that school name in our list. Therefore the number of schools increases,” said the officer.

The SIC needs to do an inspection of the building under the BMC-appointed project management consultant who evaluates and conclude with the estimated cost of the repairing work.

“The work completion depends from school to school. Some allow the repair works only during vacation or weekends, so the work pace also depends upon such factors,” said the official.

The repair works mainly include the painting of the walls (internal and external), plastering of walls, drainage works etc.

Most of the schools under repair are from the Goregaon (P/South Ward) area.

80 schools are undergoing repair work, out of which 51 schools have not even finished half the work