BMC to restart the concretising of roads from next week

Civic officials said that now since September is over, the manpower and machinery will be mobilised from next week onwards, after the festive season gets over.

Every year, due to the monsoon season, civil and construction works are brought to a halt for four months between June and September. These works gradually resume soon after the official withdrawal of monsoon is announced.

According to civic officials, starting October, the BMC will start concreting as many as 1,350 roads having a total length of 365.44 km.

The officials said that the overall bracket of 365 km has been divided into two categories. In the first category they will be taking up 574 roads having a total length of 156.74 km. These roads are partially complete and will be taken up for completion on priority.

“Our target for the completion of road concreting was May 31. However, due to early advancement of the monsoon season, we couldn’t finish our target and the roads that were dug up during that time were made even temporarily by using asphalt coating with the intention of concretising them immediately after monsoon. Now that the rains are over, these roads will be taken up first for concretising,” said an official.

In the second category, the BMC will take up concretising of 776 new roads having a total road length of 208.7 km. The officials said that these 776 roads are entirely new and the upgradation works will be taken up from scratch. The official said that the overall target of completion of these 776 roads have been set for early 2027. However, a substantial stretch will be completed before arrival of monsoon in 2026.

“The concreting works come with a lot of challenges. Firstly, there are chances of seasonal rains which slow down the pace severely. Secondly, in many areas we have witnessed local protests from people. These cases also cause hindrances in our work by a severe margin,” the official said.

The work order for the total 700 km of concretising work was issued into two phases. In the first phase, 700 roads with an approximate length of 324 km were taken up, while in the second phase 1,421 roads with an approximate length of 377 km were taken up.

Overall, the progress of work stands at 49% with 64% of the roads taken up in the first step stands completed, followed by 37% of the roads that were taken up in the second phase.

The road concreting project was announced in 2022 by Eknath Shinde (then chief minister) shortly after forming the government in Maharashtra. Shinde had announced that the entire project would be completed by early 2025.

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