Road woes flood Mumbai’s monitoring panel
November 10, 2006
Mumbai: For decades, residents of this metropolis have grumbled and griped about the pathetic condition of roads and improvements have come in fits and starts though their protests have remained constant.
Now citizens are being asked to complain about the roads through e-mail, post or go in person to the Road Monitoring Committee (RMC), appointed by the Bombay High Court following public interest litigation on the poor state of roads. Barely a week after it became operational, there has been a steady flow of complaints to the RMC on the bad state of roads in their neighbourhood and people now want quick results.
The civic body, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), has been the target of criticism for poor construction and maintenance of roads and pavements. Whether it is the thousands of potholes that appear after every monsoon or uneven pavements, especially on busy roads, the BMC has been blamed time and again.
“It is not totally fair to bash the BMC since they have a shortage of engineers,” says Sudhir Badami, a civil engineer and RMC member.
“Due to various pressures, roads are barely allowed 24 hours to settle properly.” He therefore thinks society in general should be sensitised on the technical aspects of road construction. In fact, it was the BMC which took the initiative to form a Standing Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) comprising experts and headed by senior state official N.V. Merani in 2004. Its recommendations on laying improved roads have yet to be implemented.
The court last month held the civic body and other agencies responsible for the state of affairs and included three more members in the STAC, namely Mihir Desai, Gerson D’Cunha and Sudhir Badami.
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