BMC starts ‘junction to junction’ road concreting to ease traffic

MUMBAI: The BMC will now avoid random road digging for concreting and will instead use a ‘junction to junction’ approach to ease traffic congestion. The decision comes after the BMC acknowledged complaints from over 100 active Advanced Locality Management (ALMs) in H West Ward, expressing concerns about the disruptive impact of haphazard road digging for cement concreting.

Abhijit Bangar, additional municipal commissioner (projects), has also given strict instructions that if the works are not completed by May31, no new excavation will be carried out. “The roadworks should be undertaken within the prescribed timeframe and as per quality. Delays will not be tolerated. Barricading should be done properly while roadwork is in progress, so that more roads are open for traffic,” said Bangar, who paid a surprise visit on Thursday night to Ramchandra Nagar Marg and Model Town Marg in Andheri.

For concreting works, the contractors have set up a Ready-Mix Concrete (RMC) plant at Kashimira (Mira Bhayandar) and Kurla. From there, the finished product (ready-mix concrete) is brought to the project sites. During Bangar’s visits, technical tests like cube test, slump test and bar test were conducted to check the quality of the product. Also, a video call was held with the representatives of quality management and monitoring organisation present at the RMC plant.

Bangar said he checked whether the work was being done as per standard operating procedure (SOP). It is to be noted that the BMC has received some complaints about cracks appearing on newly concretised roads across the city. Civic officials have traced the issue to lapses in monitoring at RMC plants, as well as insufficient oversight during the crucial curing process. The consultants responsible for quality monitoring will be penalised for failing to ensure proper procedures were followed during both mixing and curing.

Also, in line with various challenges in concreting work, detailed discussions were held with representatives of IIT and Institute of Quality Management and Control.

While giving instructions that the quality of the works should be maintained by considering the distance and temperature of the transport between RMC plant and the project site, Bangar said the information board displayed for the citizens at the work site should clearly mention the date of commencement of work, date of completion of work, total duration of work, length, width of the road, and from where to where the work will be done. He also added that during the road work, barricading should be done properly so that citizens can use the road for a smooth commute.