After the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday floated tenders of a collective hefty amount of Rs 5,800 crore for cement concretisation of 400 km of roads, the administration said work orders for the project are likely to be issued after the monsoon period after which the work can start in December 2022. However, with demand for the money to facilitate the projects from taxpayers' money likely to be made without a standing committee approving the proposals, experts, former bureaucrats, and politicians have expressed mixed reactions to the move. The standing committee is a statutory body in BMC composed of elected representatives, responsible for taking the financial decisions of the BMC and approving its expenditure. However, the erstwhile standing committee was dissolved by default in March this year, as the five-year term of the sitting corporators ended. DM Sukthankar, former municipal commissioner, said, “It's a very tricky situation. Everything cannot come to a standstill, and we have no clarity on when the elections will take place. People are complaining about the state of the roads and expect remedial action. In the absence of a standing committee, the administration is running the corporation and it is their job to do what is in the best interest of the city and the corporation.” Sandeep Deshpande, former corporator and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), leader said, “An administrator is supposed to take decisions crucial to keep the city functioning smoothly. (But) Any other work, that too on such a large scale, can be taken up later.” Milind Mhaske from Praja foundation said, “We need to look at the issue from two angles. There has been talk for a long time about road works getting tendered in a large amount so that bigger companies can participate and the overall quality of road works can improve. From that perspective, this is required. As long as the work is routine in nature, I don't see a problem with an administrator's approval for the project.” However, the post of an independent municipal auditor responsible for auditing the civic body's expenditure is presently vacant, Mhaske pointed out. Newsletter | Click to get the day's best explainers in your inbox Ravi Raja, former leader of the opposition in BMC, said, “We welcome the decision of the Chief Minister to make Mumbai pothole-free within two years. However, the project to concretise 400 km of roads is being undertaken in addition to concretisation of over 200 km of roads planned for 2022-23. How much of the existing work has already been completed? Hardly 25 per cent. Can the government deliver on its (new) promise?”
