BMC to start online monitoring of trench work across Mumbai

To improve the quality of roads and their maintenance, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has started online monitoring of work on trenches across the city. It would help sychronise the work being carried out by various service providers.

The civic body's road engineers have long blamed trenches for bad patches and potholes. Various organisations that lay underground utilities have to dig roads to put up gas lines, fibre optic cables, electric cables, etc. To prevent indiscriminate digging of roads, the civic body had taken the permission process online. The online permissions ensured that various authorities, and also private bodies, worked simultaneously to lay underground utilities.

In a recent monthly review meeting, municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta took a review of the online system. Ward officers have been asked to monitor work on trenches. The BMC has trending guidelines. A dug up road is expected to be restored to its original condition within seven days after the trenching activity ends. But many contractors don't follow this or end up doing a shabby job that results in bad patches. It also reduces lifespan of the road because water penetrates through these patches and the road structure gets damaged.

"To minimise the impact of trenches, the BMC is monitoring all works through an online process. As per the civic chief's instruction, most of the work on the same road will get permission for the same period. So that road will be dug for the shortest period," said a BMC official.