Roads will be pothole-free this monsoon,vows civic body

The bad patches and potholes during and before the monsoon will be repaired by Jet Patching machines obtained from an American company. The budget for monsoon repairs is Rs 33 crore up from last year’s Rs 29 crore. The civic administration has begun the process of identifying chronic spots across the city. Of the 18 wards inspected so far,Govandi and Mankhurd have the maximum number of bad patches (40) while Kalbadevi has the least (3)—-which will be repaired by jet patching machines costing Rs 78 lakh. The BMC has procured three such machines.

Officials said that once the material is filled in the machine,it automatically cleans and fills the potholes. The machine works on compaction arrangements in which compressed air is used for cleaning the potholes and filling them. The machine has a capacity of around eight cubic metre of the mixture.

“We are experimenting this year with the preventive maintenance system which will ensure that there are no potholes when the rainy season begins,” said Additional Municipal Commissioner,R A Rajeev.

This year,contractors will also have a choice to opt for repair works from ten materials including carboncor,paver blocks,asphalt,cement concrete and matrix asphalt. Rajeev said that guidelines have been prepared on how and where the materials can be used for repairing roads.

Last year,the civic administration had appointed 24 contractors and made the use of caboncor compulsory. However,an internal vigilance report of BMC had said that the material gets washed away and the roads where it was used have detoriated. Rajeev however said that the technology had not failed but there were problems in implementation.