Mumbai road work stuck since 2 months, contractors blamed

Given the slow pace of road construction in the city, the Rs577-crore project continues to be behind schedule. To mend this, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) held a review meeting of the city’s road work on Thursday.

“Work has been stuck since the past two months. Road contractors have been very reckless and are not heeding to the deadline. Actual work has not begun at any of the locations and the delay has been due to dearth of sand,” said a civic official on the condition of anonymity.

The BMC has taken on the responsibility to newly construct around 161 roads in the city. Of these, 38 are to be built in the island city, 75 in the western suburbs and 52 in the eastern suburbs.

Meanwhile, civic officials are passing the blame onto traffic policemen. “We are facing hurdles from the traffic department. Although the department has given us the NOC to begin work on a conditional basis, traffic policemen on the site are not allowing us to proceed. Whenever there is a traffic jam at the sites where the work is in progress, they ask the contractors to stop the work,” said a senior civic official.

The BMC has now decided to approach the traffic department again to ensure that work continues without any disruptions.

The BMC has set a deadline of May end, prior to the onset of monsoon next year, to finish the work. “There are a series of bottlenecks right now. The review meeting was to find a solution to them. We are confident of meeting the deadline,” said a senior
official from the road department.