June 18, 2025: Despite being one of Mumbai’s most significant infrastructure initiatives, the city’s road concretisation project has made limited progress. As of May 31, only 49.07% of the planned work has been completed, leaving nearly half of the city’s roads unfinished.
Launched in July 2022 following a directive by then Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, the project aimed to make all of Mumbai’s roads pothole-free within two years. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) undertook the task of concretising a total of 2,121 roads across two phases, covering a total stretch of 698.44 kilometres.
By the May 2024 deadline, the BMC had completed work on 1,385 roads spanning 342.74 kilometres. Out of these, 771 roads—measuring 186 kilometres—were completed end-to-end. The remaining 614 roads, covering 156.74 kilometres, have seen partial work done—either from junction to junction or half the road width. All completed roads have now been opened to traffic, according to a senior civic official.
The project is now expected to be completed in full by May 2027. Phase One, which began in February 2023, is scheduled to finish by December 2025. Phase Two is set to start in September 2024, with a completion target of May 2027.
Civic officials have instructed road department engineers to conduct frequent surprise inspections, guided by technical experts from IIT. No excavation work is allowed on the newly concretised roads, with permits for such activities strictly denied. All construction debris and barricades have been cleared, and adjacent stormwater drains have been cleaned. Work on reconstructing official speed breakers will begin once the required lists are submitted.
The BMC remains firm on its revised timeline despite public scrutiny over the project’s pace.
Source: The Free Press Journal
