BMC 'relocates' its own roads in Mumbai, blames it on contractors

Civic officials seem to have made some geographical adjustments of their own while putting up road signs in the city The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC has named five roads incorrectly in the city with the errors being as silly as writing the location of a road which is close to the Vile Parle railway station as Juhu and an area in Andheri East as Vile ParleThe old correct signboard showing Azad Road in Andheri while the new sign has moved it to Gundavali which is a couple of kilometres from the spot PicsNimesh DaveWhen the BMC undertakes road construction improvement or maintenance work the existing signboards are sometimes taken down It is the contractorrsquos responsibility to put new ones in their place and the civic body thereafter has to ensure that the new signs are correct These new boards consisting of the name of the road and the suburb it is located in are blue and yellow in colour and bear the official seal of the civic bodyChurch Road which is near Vile Parle West railway station now finds itself in JuhuWherersquos it againAt five places in the city four of which are in the Western suburbs the civic body has put up erroneous signboards that are the source of collective amusement and laughter of the local residents there When midday visited the spots we found some even clicking pictures and sharing them with their friendsAt Church Road for example which is very close to the suburban Vile Parle West railway station the BMC has put up a signboard stating the road is in Juhu At five locations in the city the BMC has either incorrectly named the area or the road These include Church Road in Vile Parle West which is very close to the suburban railway station and yet bears the name lsquoChurch Road JuhursquoThe other example is that of Cardinal Gracious Road in Andheri East which as per the BMC is a part of Vile Parle East ldquoI donrsquot understand how the BMC can make such a mistake Even a kid will know better The area has always been a part of Chakala Andheri East How can they say it is in Vile Parlerdquo asked Tushar Shetty who has been running his hotel on Cardinal Gracias Road for many yearsContinuing in Andheri East Azad Road has two signboards next to each other ndash one stating its original location in Andheri while the other puts it in Gundavli which is a couple of kilometres away ldquoIt is funny A lot of people have clicked pictures here But if any person new to the area is confused we are here to helprdquo said Vijay Pandey a stall owner on Azad RoadNicholas Almeida an activist of Watchdog Foundation an NGO said ldquoThese are blunders on the part of the BMC I couldnrsquot help but wonder how careless these people are about such important thingsrdquo Almeida then pointed out two more such errors one in JVPD scheme in Vile Parle West whose location has been shown as Andheri West and the other in Dhobi Talao in south Mumbai where the Dr Simon C Fernandes Road has been spelt as lsquoSimancy Farnandes StreetrsquoOfficial speakWhen asked about their gaffe BMC officials pinned the blame on contractors T N Kumar deputy chief engineer Roads Western suburbs said ldquoIt could have been a typographical mistake Contractors are given a printed sheet with names of roads They must have goofed up I will have to look into the matterrdquoAshok Pawar chief engineer Roads department told this paper ldquoWhen work orders are issued to contractors they are given in bulk and road works may be in multiple wards at the same time This leads to confusion In this case when our employees went there they must have checked the work order number and not the name But I have asked them to rectify it immediatelyrdquo