BMC to buy 3 machines to fix potholes next year …………Clara Lewis | TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Mumbai: The civic body’s plan to fix potholes during monsoon with carbon core technology was tanked by the contractors with the help of corrupt BMC officials.
Consider the old system in which the contractors filled one patch of potholes and put in a claim for stretches that were 25 times larger. There was no simple method to cross-check their claims. Moreover, corrupt contractors had some BMC men on their side to manipulate the figures. It was easy money with minimum effort.
Then came along the carbon core technology, with mathematics in tow. One bag of the cold mix can fill only 1.1 sq mt space. With only one franchisee across the city to provide the bags, the BMC had a one-stop counter to check how many bags had been picked up and simply work out how many square metres of potholes had been filled on a given day.
The BMC babus, for once, decided to get tougher. They roped in a third party to assess just how much work was being done. “We also wanted an independent party to help us decide whether it is the technology that is not working or if it is a manmade problem,’’ a senior official said.
But civic contractors decided to hit back, leaving Mumbai’s traffic to crawl on potholed roads. From dragging their feet on pothole repairs to using political pressure to their advantage, a majority of the 24 contractors, largely in the suburbs, have gone all out to stop the use of the cold mix.
Says a contractor from the western suburbs, “Carboncore has failed. It has failed. It has failed. Their (franchisee) own workmen tried fixing one spot four times and it came off.’’ The contractor, however, refused to be named. Another claimed that the mix was not as good as it had been publicised to be.
Rajeev admitted that contractors had technical issues with the mix. The contractors, on their part, said their payment was too poor for the use of this technology. In their letter to the BMC last month, they had demanded Rs 1,667 per sq mt to “ensure a good job’’. In a bid to win the road repairs contract, each of the contractor had quoted between Rs 225 per sq mt and Rs 333 per sq mt, which is much lower than the cost of the cold mix which comes at Rs 370 per sq mt. “They quoted a lower figure to get the repair contract, but are now claiming that they can’t do the job at that price. This is because they have realised that there is no easy money to be made,’’ said civic sources.
D L Shinde, chief engineer (roads), has admitted to a goslow by contractors. Till date, contractors have picked up material ranging between 700 bags and 2,500 bags each.
When the administration refused to budge, the contractors approached several standing committee members (the committee takes all the financial decisions for the BMC) to stay the use of the cold mix. Some standing committee members even asked the administration to withdraw the material and return to the conventional method. Congress and Shiv Sena corporators were the most vocal, claiming that the move to bring in carboncore was a “conspiracy to allow the franchisee monopoly in the business’’.
To counter allegations of monopoly, the BMC has now said that will purchase three jetpatching machines using the conventional technology to fix potholes next year. Besides, it is also experimenting with pothole repair products from Germany and Canada.
The administration simultaneously issued show cause notices to five contractors and even collected Rs 10 lakh in fines. It also issued a circular asking ward officers to ask the franchisee to directly repair the potholes in the ward if the contractors failed to comply.
What is Carboncore?
Carboncore is an emulsion of carbonaceous shale—a waste product of coal mining. Here ,water is the binder and hence it can be laid in wet conditions. It was tried on Mumbai’s roads for two monsoons and spots treated with it for potholes did not sport them again. Just before the monsoon, the civic administration declared that it will not use the conventional method of stoneaggregates and bitumen to repair potholes rather it will use the South African product across the city. To ensure that the product was indeed used, BMC made it mandatory for the contractors bidding for the contract to obtain a letter from the franchisee company that it would provide them with the material. The franchisee, in turn, charged the contractors Rs 30 lakh each against the letter as a deposit and also to use the money to repair potholes in case the contractor failed to do it correctly. Says Deepak Shah of Sumer Infrastructure, which is the franchisee for carboncore technology, “The technology has failed only in wards where the contractors have heavily underquoted and are now finding it difficult to use the material as required.’’
What is Carboncore?
Carboncore is an emulsion of carbonaceous shale—a waste product of coal mining. Here ,water is the binder and hence it can be laid in wet conditions. It was tried on Mumbai’s roads for two monsoons and spots treated with it for potholes did not sport them again. Just before the monsoon, the civic administration declared that it will not use the conventional method of stoneaggregates and bitumen to repair potholes rather it will use the South African product across the city. To ensure that the product was indeed used, BMC made it mandatory for the contractors bidding for the contract to obtain a letter from the franchisee company that it would provide them with the material. The franchisee, in turn, charged the contractors Rs 30 lakh each against the letter as a deposit and also to use the money to repair potholes in case the contractor failed to do it correctly. Says Deepak Shah of Sumer Infrastructure, which is the franchisee for carboncore technology, “The technology has failed only in wards where the contractors have heavily underquoted and are now finding it difficult to use the material as required.’’