Mumbai: With no solution for potholes, BMC goes back to old contractors

Following the poor response to tenders worth R5 crore for pothole repairs, the BMC in an emergency meeting on Wednesday, decided to opt for old contractors to fix potholes on Ganpati procession routes on priority and has agreed to pay extra money for the same. The civic body received only one bid for the five tenders it had floated for pothole repairs on July 29.

Despite several assurances and claims by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, potholes on almost every road are increasing and those repaired are re-emerging after a day or two. The civic body had claimed that new technologies such as rapid hardening concrete and geo-polymer solution would solve the issue of potholes.

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After pilot testing the methods on Wadala roads, the BMC on July 29 invited five separate tenders worth R5 crore - one for the island city, one for eastern suburbs and three for the western suburbs. As per the tender document, the defect liability period is set for 15 months and the contractor is to get 50 per cent of the payment on completing the work and the remaining half after the defect liability period. The last date for filing bids was August 12, but only one bidder came forward for one tender.
"There were pre-bid meetings but the respondents needed bigger contracts and were not ready to invest in infrastructure for such a low cost. Even the 15 months assurance was an issue," said a BMC official on the condition of anonymity.

In view of this, an emergency meeting was held on Thursday and it was decided that old contractors will be roped in to deal with potholes with rapid hardening concrete. "The BMC will pay them extra for filling up the potholes on Ganesh procession routes on priority basis," said an official.

Civic chief Iqbal Singh Chahal, additional commissioner P Velarasu did not comment despite calls and messages. Activist Nikhil Desai said, "They will make smooth roads only for Ganpati festival and the roads will be full of potholes soon after that. On one hand the BMC claimed to make city roads free of potholes in two years, on the other they haven't even managed to find a solution for this year."

"The BMC comes up with different ideas for pothole repairs time and again, but these half-hearted measures are good for nothing and have been created only to mask BMC's failures. If BMC officials really care about ordinary Mumbaikars, they should assess the ground reality and repair potholes on war footing," said Godfrey Pimenta, an activist.

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No. of bids that the civic body has received so far

Methods tried

. Rapid hardening concrete, used for construction of dams, costs more, at Rs 23,000 per cubic metre, with a curing period of six hours
. Geo-polymer solution, which takes two hours to dry, costs around Rs 5,000 per square metre
. M60 concrete, which requires six days to dry, costs Rs 600 per square metre