Neither of the seven civic departments asked to submit five-year plans on road digging in February have done so till date, leading to haphazard digging and a lack of coordination between them
If, looking at the number of roads that are dug up at any given time, you got the feeling that very little planning went into the process, you may have hit the nail on the head.
Most of the seven departments have not even begun preparing the plan despite the circular being issued in February. File pic
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Nearly a year after the BMC asked seven of its utility departments to submit a five-year plan for their digging works laying and repair of utilities such as tunnels, pipelines, sewer, cables, etc to ensure that there is coordination and the common man does not suffer, not one department has gotten back to it with the data.
The circular was issued in February and BMC dug up 900 roads in March, out of which work on nearly 400 was completed before the onset of the monsoon. This month alone, work has begun on 300 roads with a completion date of March 31, 2015.
All of this has resulted in chaos and regular traffic jams at various places in the city, with commuters choking in dust and pedestrians narrowly dodging dug-up trenches and footpaths.
The circular, issued on February 4 by the deputy municipal commissioner (engineering) to the heads of the seven departments reads: “New road work is being undertaken in all wards with defect liability period of a minimum of three years.
To have better coordination between different utility departments, it is decided to prepare a five-year work plan for digging activities and share with each other.”
Free-for-all
“So far we haven’t heard from any of the departments on the five-year plan, which we planned to implement to improve coordination between them while undertaking digging work on roads. As of now, it looks like a free-for-all,” said a senior BMC official.
When mid-day checked with the departments, most of them had even started working on the five-year plan. “We are in the process of preparing the plan and will share it immediately with other departments. We do share information with each other on a day-to-day basis,” said an official from the storm water drains department.
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