BMC imposes hefty fine on contractor for not maintaining road

Sending out a strong message, Mumbai's civic body Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has imposed a hefty fine of Rs 1 lakh per day on a contractor for not maintaining a road in the megacity. Till now, the maximum penalty for shoddy work or delay was up to Rs 5,000 per day for the tender-winning contractors.

"The contract work of the repair of Ghatkopar-Mankhurd Link Road was awarded to the contractor prior to the monsoon," a civic official said. "The contract included improvement of the 3km-long stretch from Shivaji Nagar junction to Vasant Road Naik Marg, but contractor failed to deliver, which resulted in inconvenience to the motorists," he said.

The official said that during the review of the work of the road department of the civic body, "it was found that contractor failed to deliver" and therefore, his firm was ordered to pay a fine of Rs one lakh per day starting from Wednesday. The contractor will have to pay the fine till the company completes the task assigned to it.

The contract was awarded to Vishal Constructions in the month March this year, before the onset of the monsoon.

Local corporator Vitthal Lokare said, "The move to levy hefty penalty is quite good as it will deter lazy contractors to shy away from work. But in this case, the civic administration has penalised the contractor selectively."

He said the BMC has penalised one company which was building a service road but did not act against another contractor building a bridge and whose "shoddy work" is causing immense inconvenience to the people.

BMC has been facing flak over the poor condition of roads which got highlighted due to rains during the ongoing monsoon.