The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has chosen to forgo haphazard road excavation in favour of concrete due to the numerous grievances raised by more than 100 Advanced Locality Management (ALM) groups in H West Ward. To reduce traffic congestion, the civic authority will instead employ a planned “junction-to-junction” strategy.
The Additional Municipal Commissioner (Projects), Abhijit Bangar, has given stringent instructions to guarantee that road construction follows the established timeline and quality requirements. He underlined that no further excavation will begin if the work is not finished by May 31. Bangar emphasised the significance of timely completion, appropriate barricading, and effective traffic management during roadworks during a surprise inspection of Ramchandra Nagar Marg and Model Town Marg in Andheri.
To facilitate the concreting process, contractors have set up Ready-Mix Concrete (RMC) plants in Kashimira (Mira Bhayandar) and Kurla. The quality of the concrete is being assessed through technical tests such as the cube test, slump test, and bar test. Bangar also conducted a video call with representatives of quality management organisations stationed at the RMC plants to ensure compliance with standards.
Recent complaints about cracks on recently concreted roads have been confirmed by the BMC, which has linked the problem to faulty curing procedures and oversights at RMC plants. The quality control specialists will be penalised if they disregard the correct processes, civic officials have warned.
For in-depth talks on raising work standards, BMC has enlisted specialists from IIT and the Institute of Quality Management and Control in light of the difficulties involved in road concreting. To ensure better transparency for the public, Bangar also ordered that information boards be put up at construction sites. These boards would display important details including start and completion dates, road measurements, and project scope. He also reaffirmed the necessity of appropriate barricading to maintain access to more highways while construction is underway.
Source: Hindustan Times
