The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has collected at least Rs1.27 crore from different utility companies as 'access tariff' in the last 20 days.
Every private agency digging up roads will have to pay a certain amount to the civic body as tariff, which will then get transferred to a dedicated 'transport fund'. The fund will be used for the upkeep and maintenance of city roads and also by the civic body's traffic department. The process was started about three weeks ago.
The tariff collected will be an additional source of revenue for the civic body, above a separate amount it has been collecting for the last two months from every utility company for restoring the roads dug up by them.
According to a senior civic official, previously, every private agency was supposed to redo the road they have dug up. "However, it was getting increasingly difficult to monitor the road restoration process. Different utility companies dig up roads for different purposes, for laying water pipelines or cables and so on. So, instead of doing up the roads themselves, they now pay the amount to the civic body, which carries out the resurfacing work on their behalf," the official said.
Additional municipal commissioner SVR Srinivas said the additional revenue, generated from access tariff, will be a considerable help to the civic body. "It will be used for the maintenance and upkeep of the roads, which is our priority now," he said.
Srinivas also informed that the deadline for redoing all trenches is April 30, while May 20 is the date fixed by the civic body for completion of all the resurfacing work.
BJP corporator Ameet Satam from Andheri, where several roads have been dug up by utility companies, welcomed the move but said there should be more coordination between the central agency and the wards in terms of road development and management. "Like other agencies, BMC should have a programme management schedule for road development in the city," he added.
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