Mumbai: A day after TOI reported cracks on the newly constructed cement concrete road in Santacruz, residents from other areas, including Bandra West, Powai, and Andheri’s Lokhandwala, raised similar concerns about freshly laid roads in their localities.
They alleged serious negligence by contractors and civic officials, accusing them of failing to ensure proper monitoring of the work and once again leaving the citizens inconvenienced by substandard roads, they said. The BMC is spending over Rs 6,000 crore on road concretisation across the city, a project inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Jan last year.
A Bandra West resident, not wanting to be named, told TOI, “At 16th Road in Bandra (W) near Mini Punjab, the quality of the road laid is very bad, and yet there are no questions raised by civic authorities meant to monitor these works. This road construction was completed as recently as May 2024, and it has started showing cracks in no time.” When TOI visited the site on Thu, a few locals pointed out that the cracks were filled on the road a few days ago.
Further in the suburbs, residents shared similar cases. Mandeep Singh Makkar, founder of Chandivali Citizens Welfare Association, said DP Road 9, Powai, was a classic example of shoddy concretisation work.
“DP Road 9, Powai, is an important connector road between Chandivali Farm Road and Jogeshwari Vikrohli Link Road (JVLR). The BMC-appointed contractor built a shoddy half road in 18 months. Even the newly constructed side of the road developed cracks. The half new road and half old road have been so badly done that this road has become an accident-prone spot, very dangerous for bikers and motorists. The work order for concretisation of the 557-metre stretch of the road was issued in Feb 2023.”
In the western suburbs, Dhaval Shah from Andheri Lokhandwala Oshiwara Citizen’s Association (LOCA) said that at Back Road in Andheri’s Lokhandwala, after the top layer of a concrete road peeled off, mastic asphalt was used to level it again.
“Concrete roads are good for Mumbai considering lifespan, versus asphalt roads, but the implementation currently going on is without following proper procedure, resulting in cracks and surface deterioration within a few months,” said Shah.
When contacted, additional municipal commissioner Abhijit Bangar, in-charge of the civic roads department, said, “There is a zero-tolerance policy towards shoddy road quality. Due procedure to fix responsibility on the contractor and also the Quality Management Agency (QMA) will be followed. We will also impose a penalty as per the tender conditions and check the extent to which the work done is not up to the mark.”
