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Journalism of Courage
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) wants to take over the maintenance of the city’s Western and Eastern Express Highways (WEH and EEH) that are being maintained by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority.
In a recently held war-room meeting with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, the BMC proposed that it take over these two highways for maintenance.
The BMC said several complaints were raised by residents about potholes on highways.
However, the MMRDA is not in favour of handing over the maintenance of these highways to BMC, a Mantralaya official said.
“The one that maintains these highways also gets the advertisement rights on these roads. As the MMRDA generates good revenue by renting out advertisement rights on these two highways, it is not in favour of handing them over to BMC,” said a senior Mantralaya official who was part of the recent meeting.
The MMRDA had floated tenders to upgrade both the highways but the tenders are now cancelled.
The MMRDA had planned to convert the two highways into cement-concrete roads. Both these highways were proposed to be revamped as per international standards. CCTVs, street furniture, beautification and underground water tanks were also proposed to be built on these highways.
The cost of the upgrade of Western Express Highway was pegged at nearly Rs 830 crore and Eastern Express Highway at over Rs 470 crore.
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