Nearly three weeks after it binned road tenders worth Rs 5,806 crore citing poor response, the BMC has invited fresh bids to concretise 400 km of asphalt roads at Rs 6,078 crore. While the average cost escalation is about 5 per cent, it’s a bit higher for the western suburbs, said civic officials. The BMC plans to convert all asphalt roads in Mumbai to concrete ones in the next two-and-a-half years to reduce potholes.

On Thursday, the BMC invited five tenders—one each for the south city and the eastern suburbs, and three for the western suburbs. The road length in each tender is the same as the earlier one. With an increase of Rs 272 crore, officials said the cost has gone up by 3 per cent for the south city, while it has soared 4 per cent for easter suburbs. The figure is 5.2 per cent for western suburbs. “The number of stormwater drains on both sides of roads is high in western suburbs compared to other areas,” said P Velrasu, additional municipal commissioner, explaining the rationale behind the higher costs for western suburbs.