Quality of work will not be compromised, says Navi Mumbai civic chief Abasaheb Jarhad

In the backdrop of concerns being raised about the quality of work that would be completed in the absence of requisite supervision during election period, Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) commissioner Abasaheb Jarhad has said that there will be no compromise on the quality of work and necessary supervision will be carried out.

Ahead of model code of conduct, the standing committee of NMMC had cleared proposals worth over Rs750 crore, so that no work gets stuck up due to the elections. However, concerns were being raised about the quality of work and how NMMC will supervise the work in the absence of required number of engineers.

"Of most of the works cleared, many pertained to road works in the city and MIDC belt. NMMC is already facing staff crunch and there are no engineers to supervise regular work. With so many proposals cleared, there is no staff to monitor the work being done by contractors which could result in inferior work," said DS Patil, a social activist from Belapur.

The municipal commissioner dismissed the concerns as "needless," saying, "There was enough staff with NMMC to monitor the work. Besides, the engineers in civic body are not given election duty so they will be free to supervise the work which is being executed by the contractor. In addition, we have consultants who too will be monitoring the work and wherever we have doubts we get the quality evaluated by experts from IIT so there should be no concern about the quality of work that is being executed."

On the number of engineers available with the civic body, an official from engineering department said, "There are 60 junior engineers of whom some are serving on contract and some are permanent; there are 32 branch engineers, 29 deputy engineers, 12 executive engineers who can monitor the work."

The civic body has committed to the Bombay high court that it will construct roads that will be pothole free during the coming monsoon and also submitted an action plan for the same. Major junctions in the city will be concretised and also works have been taken up in MIDC belt.