Court says 4 weeks for repairs, but MMRDA needs a full season
MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Thursday gave the MMRDA a four-week extension to complete road repairs, but officials say they need one full dry season to get back on track.
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority’s own deadline to fill in all potholes — based on an agreement with contractors — is December 2006. But after that the agency will need a couple of months more to get traffic moving smoothly, an official said. Authorities say heavy traffic and the problem of rehabilitating slums have slowed down the work.
“Work on subways is a priority along the Western Express Highway at Malad and Kandivli. Then we will cordon off the corridors to start work on approach roads for the 16 new flyovers on both highways,” said Milind Mhaiskar, joint metropolitan commissioner.
Mhaiskar said the 18 roads under the MMRDA, besides the highways, are still in the hands of contractors who need at least four months to complete their work.
“Work on JP Road and Gulmohar Road is complete,” he said. “There has been good progress on the Goregaon-Mulund link road and rehabilitation issues on the Jogeshwari-Vikhroli and Santa Cruz-Chembur link roads have been addressed.”
While concrete and paver blocks have been used on arterial roads, mastic asphalt is being used to strengthen and widen the highways and create five lanes on both sides plus two service roads each.
Officials say that unlike the BMC, the MMRDA has built some new corridors. “Saki Naka-LBS Marg is a new corridor where we had to demolish structures along a 3km stretch. The Santa Cruz-Chembur and Jogeshwari-Vikhroli link roads are new and have been built without disturbing traffic. If there were no slums and traffic had been diverted, we could have completed the work in six months,” said another senior official.