Mumbai’s repeated road digging for utility work could see a major overhaul, with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) preparing a new trenching policy aimed at reducing excavations and improving road quality.
Municipal Commissioner Ashwini Bhide said the policy is expected to be finalised by September 1 and will be implemented after approval from the civic standing committee. The proposed framework will introduce an online permission system, require utility ducts when excavation approvals are granted and encourage agencies to restore roads after completing their work.
“The trenching policy will be designed in such a way that the utilities will have an incentive to use dedicated ducts. Under the new policy, everything will be streamlined online. Under the existing policy, the utility owners end up leaving the roads shabby as there were too many players. We are trying to remove all the bottlenecks and systematise the entire process of trenching to improve the quality of roads,” Bhide told The Indian Express.
Mumbai has around 2,050 km of roads, beneath which electricity cables, telecommunications lines, gas pipelines and legacy BEST cables run across roads, footpaths and medians. Regular excavation to install, repair or upgrade these utilities affects traffic, pedestrians and road surfaces.
“We have roughly 27 to 30 utilities, and they need to be constantly repaired or augmented, for which trenching is critical. However, trenching can damage bituminous roads as water gets in. While the concretisation drive has been able to fix this, we have to cut the road for fixing utilities,” Bhide told The Indian Express.
Under the proposed policy, utility ducts measuring around 300-350 mm will provide dedicated underground corridors with accessible chambers, allowing agencies to reach cables and pipelines without repeatedly cutting roads.
The BMC is already installing utility ducts along 700 km of roads through its concretisation programme, while another 1,350 km currently lack dedicated corridors.
The policy will also allow agencies to undertake road reinstatement themselves, with the BMC potentially compensating them for the restoration work. A new online portal is expected to make permission and fee processes largely faceless.
The proposed framework is an update to Mumbai’s existing trenching policy introduced in 2015.
Source: The Indian Express
