BMC would spend INR 60 billion to pave 400 km of roads

In the upcoming years, will Mumbai's pitiful potholed roads ultimately be fixed? The BMC has chosen five large construction companies with a track record in building national highways to carry out the job and has eliminated small road contractors in order to execute the largest-ever civic contract to concrete 400km of road for INR 60 billion. The BMC has imposed some of the strictest requirements on the road contractors, who will be required to maintain these roads for ten years, for the first time. Road concreting will first be carried out by professionals with international experience.

For the first time in the history of the city's road construction, 400 km of roads will be concreted by companies that have constructed national highways. According to municipal commissioner Iqbal Chahal, the letters of intent will be sent to them. He praised chief minister Eknath Shinde and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis for having the vision to make Mumbai pothole free. The companies Nagarjuna Construction Company, Eagle Infra India, Roadways Solutions India, Megha Engineers & Infrastructure, and Dineshchandra Agrawal Infracon are anticipated to receive the two-year mega-contract for road concreting.

According to Chahal, a new tender to concrete 375 km would be floated later in March. “This is the final call for bids for cement-concrete roads. With this, Mumbai’s 2,000 km of roads would be completely concreted,” he said. Roads made of cement-concrete are designed to endure 25 years. High-definition CCTV cameras will be installed and connected to BMC servers for 24/7 road monitoring to ensure quality. Five contracts build cement-concrete roads in the island metropolis and its eastern and western suburbs were awarded after sixteen firms submitted their bids. The greatest portion, three contracts worth INR 40 billion was given to the western suburbs. The contract has an estimated value of INR 8.46 billion in the eastern suburbs and INR 12.34 billion across the island city.

According to Ulhas Mahale, deputy municipal commissioner for infrastructure, work orders will be issued in three weeks. Following that, work may begin, he said. A full-time quality management monitoring assurance agency (QMA) has been appointed by the civic administration to oversee the road construction. When purchasing the material, QMA and BMC officials would be deployed at various plants and material sources to assure proper quality as and when required, it stated. Joint ventures between these businesses and other businesses will not be permitted.

“It has been noted that when smaller contractual firms band together and apply for these jobs, the requisite level of knowledge and quality is not attained. Joint ventures (JV) and consortiums won’t be permitted for this work as a result, said the BMC's tendering standards to guarantee quality. Subletting will also be strongly prohibited. The bidding agency is responsible for paying for labour, supplies, and equipment. If the opposite is demonstrated, the bidding agency will face harsh punishment.

“Every year, the BMC will verify all of the bills to ensure that the aforementioned criteria have been met in full. The principal contractor is responsible for keeping all of the invoices up to date. The money made shall be recovered, and two times the value of such payment made shall be collected as penalty, if in audit reports the invoices are not located in the name of the principal contractor, it read.