MUMBAI: A decision to take up Rs. 1200 crores worth of road repair work in the city starting October 2021 has been kept pending. Officials said that as volume of work is huge, they want to moderate the same and decide which needs to be taken up on priority.
However, corporators from the opposition party have alleged that BMC is spending “lavishly” on large projects, but essential road work is ignored.
"Every year, the BMC spends phenomenal amounts on road repairs, but there seems to be little accountability considering the pathetic state of our roads. The administration’s decision to keep the roads repair proposal pending indicates it wants to conserve its finances considering the huge expenditure it incurred since last year to control the pandemic. However, the corporation must also ensure that crucial road repair work does not suffer.-TimesView"
Opposition party corporatorRais Shaikh alleged that BMC invited tenders for repair work months ago, but the final packet of bids was opened two months ago but it is still to bring the proposal for approval in the standing committee. “While we see wasteful expenditure in desalination plants at Rs 1,600 crore, BMC is struggling to decide which roads to take up for repairs,” said Shaikh who has written to BMC chief I S Chahal.
Opposition party leader in the BMC, Ravi Raja, meanwhile said that the reason for delay in new road repair contracts seems to be huge expenditure it has already made to tackle the Covid pandemic. “...So, it appears that BMC is trying to cut on spending. But road repair is vital and should not suffer,” said Raja.
Sources in the BMC who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that in a run-up to BMC polls 2022, corporators are pushing BMC to take up road works on priority even if it means only making an announcement.
A corporator said that BMC cannot reduce the quantum of work this year in any way as the public may think corporators did nothing for the ward.
However, additional municipal commissioner P Velrasu said that while Rs 1,200 crore worth of works have been tendered, there are other jobs worth Rs 400 crore that are yet to be tendered out.
“The volume of work is not likely to reduce in any way but we only want to moderate the quantum that we may take up as the budget allocation is only of Rs 1,200 crore.
A decision on the quantum of work to be taken up will be made soon and proposals will be tabled before the civic committee for an approval,” he said adding that Covid expenditure have not in any way created a fund crunch as Rs. 2,000 crore has been already spent and hence they do not expect an expense of more than Rs. 400 crore approximately.
“Besides, we expect only around Rs. 400 crore worth of bills from the current road works tendered out to come into this year’s financial budget,” said Velrasu.
