Lindsay Pereira: BMC: Citizens' bane, contractors' boon

Heres an interesting piece of information about the most efficient least corrupt organisation in Bombay mdash the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation According to news reports earlier this week Indias most stellar civic body has awarded road contracts worth R227 crore to tainted contractors If you havent heard about this you will probably figure it out on your own a month or so from now while struggling to get home through muddy waisthigh waterWhat this recent decision makes pretty obvious is that there are no qualified contractors in this massive city Why else would those who have been blacklisted for doing the worst job in the history of bad jobs be awarded contracts againThe newly opened flyover in Goregaon is uneven bumpy and almost certainly accidentprone but maybe were too hard on the BMC and MMRDA We only waited six years for one half of the Goregaon flyover File picIts also pretty obvious that no one in the BMC or MMRDA the second most efficient organisation in the country will ever be able to give us decent roads simply because no one in either establishment has a clue about what a good road should be like This also explains why the newly opened flyover in Goregaon is uneven bumpy and almost certainly accidentproneThey say the roads will be fixed of course and they will What they dont add is how the roads wont stay fixed 24 hours after the first mild shower Then again it may be our fault Maybe were too hard on the BMC and MMRDA and havent been patient enough We only waited six years for one half of that flyover for instanceWe could have given them a more reasonable amount of time like 15 years or 30 After all dealing with encroachments alone usually takes a good decade or so And if there happens to be a religious structure in the way moving that tends to add a few more decades stretching the making of a halfdecent road from 12 months to 12 yearsMaybe we also worry too much about good roads Good roads are probably overrated anyway Only a few hundred thousand people die on them annually which isnt a number worth obsessing over when looking at the larger scheme of things We also give the BMC and MMRDA only had a few decades to work on them so how can we expect smooth potholefree stretches Also if they do dig up half decent roads to lay new pipelines a month before the monsoon they probably have great reasons for it too It makes perfect business sense for contractors for instance even if it seems senseless to everyone else in the cityHeres another interesting piece of information related to our roads Remember that road scam last year You probably wont because there appears to be a new one every week To refresh your memory this particular one was unearthed after an enquiry report submitted by a threemember committee which led to FIRs being filed against six contractors and the suspension of two civic officialsNow some of those contractors have been given permission to repair and construct bridges and possibly a flyover Should companies that cant build a road be allowed to build a bridge It may seem like another stupid question to most of us but the answer for the BMC or the MMRDA is a resounding Yes As pointed out earlier they know something most of us do notIf the work of blacklisted contractors wont make life difficult enough for you the BMC always has a limitless supply of stupid decisions to accomplish that This is why roads have been dug up across the city some for the laying of pipes others for repairing pipes that appear to have lasted just a few months and still others seemingly for fun because why should some of us suffer when all of us can Again the dugup roads will supposedly be fixed by the end of May but you and I both know the debris will lie there until our grandchildren arrive making it hard for them to commute tooWe should all quit whatever it is were doing and do our best to become contractors for the BMC Its obviously the easiest job in the world You can fail as often as you like you are never held accountable for anything you do you can dig up roads at random without filling out a completion date on the boards put up alongside and you get to play with a budget thats larger than the GDP of a small country If thats not exciting enough for you to consider a change of career what isWhen he isnt ranting about all things Mumbai Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet He tweets lindsaypereiraSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycom