The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is preparing to resume its large-scale road concreting programme in Mumbai during the first week of October, following the expected withdrawal of the southwest monsoon from the city.
The civic body has asked contractors to restart work between October 1 and 5, with the move coming ahead of the India Meteorological Department’s normal monsoon withdrawal date of October 8 for Mumbai.
A senior civic official said contractors have already been informed to begin preparations, while permissions from the civic administration are in place. Traffic-related approvals will be required before work resumes at individual locations.
“Roadwork was halted on June 10, in view of the monsoon, and contractors were told that they would be resuming work in October. A reminder has been conveyed to them, so that they begin mobilisation, and roadwork can start between October 1 and 5. A few light showers on the withdrawal days doesn’t pose any major issue’
The BMC’s public dashboard shows that work under the first two phases remains pending on 590 roads covering 138 km. Of these, concreting has yet to begin on 274 roads covering 75 km, while work is partially complete on another 316 roads spanning 63 km.
“Contractors already have the BMC’s approval; they just require the Mumbai Traffic Police’s nod before they start any work,” stated a civic official.
The overall road concreting programme covers 2,179 roads stretching 715.09 km. Around 577 km, or 80.7%, has been completed, while 63 km remains partially unfinished and work on 75 km is yet to begin.
The project is estimated at around Rs 17,000 crore, with Phase 1 targeted for completion by December 2026 and Phase 2 by May 2027.
Scientist ‘E’ from the IMD, Sushma Nair, explains, “Normally, the monsoon commences its withdrawal from Maharashtra in October, and the normal date of withdrawal over Mumbai is October 8.”
The civic body’s renewed focus will be on completing pending stretches while coordinating traffic management during construction.
Source: Mid-day
