Maha: Shelar Calls for SIT Investigation into BMC's Deficient Concrete Road Projects
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Mumbai, Dec 13 (NationPress) In response to reports about the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) substandard concrete road constructions, Mumbai BJP leader Ashish Shelar on Friday appealed to Municipal Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani to form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to scrutinize the quality of the work performed. This includes executing a comprehensive audit with the involvement of experts from IIT Bombay and VJTI on 40 percent of the concretized road sections chosen at random, as well as investigating any deficiencies in quality control, oversight processes, and contractor operations.
Additionally, Shelar has insisted that stringent measures be taken against errant road contractors, which may include imposing fines, blacklisting, and holding accountable negligent agencies and officials for any failures.
Shelar's request to Gagrani follows media reports indicating cracks in newly concreted roads across various locations in Mumbai. The BMC is currently allocating Rs 6000 crore for road concretization throughout the city, a project that was recently inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In his correspondence to Gagrani, Shelar mentioned that he has received numerous complaints from citizens regarding the poor quality of concrete road work.
“During my inspection of Badhwar Road in the Santacruz West area of my assembly constituency, I observed that the recently finished concretized road has begun to crack, layers of concrete are peeling off, and the curing of the latest road works is inadequate. Given the prevalence of such quality issues, which have been highlighted in media reports,” he stated.
Shelar's letter and his visit to assess the quality of the concrete work followed complaints from residents of Powai, Bandra West, and Andheri’s Lokhandwala who expressed concerns about the state of the newly concreted roads.
They accused the contractors and civic officials of negligence due to a lack of regular monitoring, leading to poor workmanship.
A BMC official, acknowledging the serious nature of the public complaints, indicated that responsibility would be placed on the contractors and quality management agencies for the inferior work.
