‘How will you complete concretisation of Mumbai roads in time?’: Bombay HC asks BMC

A division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Arif S Doctor passed directions while hearing a contempt petition filed by lawyer Ruju Thakker alleging non-compliance of 2018 orders by the civic authorities to repair potholes along all arterial roads in the city.

Thakker cited a news report which claimed that as per civic officials, merely 5 per cent of the work of a total of 397 kilometre of cement concrete roads in the island city have been fully completed so far.

Thakker argued that the BMC was to complete construction of cement concrete roads within a year from the date the BMC Commissioner appeared before the court on August 11, 2023.

“How are you going to complete the concretisation of 95 per cent roads by May this year as the monsoon starts thereafter? So, what will you do then? The same story continues (every year). Clarify that, howsoever incorrect the information given in the news report may be,” Chief Justice Upadhyaya orally remarked.

The High Court also expressed displeasure over the municipal corporations in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and state Public Works Department (PWD) not filing their affidavits in response to the contempt plea, despite the passage of a month since the said direction.

After a BMC lawyer sought time to file an affidavit in response citing its staff, including those from the legal department, being occupied with election and door-to-door Maratha reservation survey duties, CJ Upadhyaya remarked, “So the roads will be shut down in Mumbai? What kind of excuses are you giving? Some of your Class C staff are being sent for survey and election duties and therefore the BMC cannot function and not file an affidavit? What is happening?”

However, the bench granted time to the authorities to file their responses and posted the matter for further hearing to February 15.

Meanwhile, on January 17, the BMC told a coordinate bench led by Justice Gautam S Patel that it had cancelled a fresh tender, worth over Rs 1,362.34 crore, issued on December 4 to concretise roads in Mumbai.

The High Court was hearing a writ plea by M/s Roadway Solutions Infra Ltd (RSIL), whose contract to improve and concretise various roads was terminated by the civic body in November last year. The Justice Patel-led bench on December 14, 2023, had stayed the effect of a fresh tender, which came to be cancelled as per the BMC’s submission in High Court on January 17.