During the 2013 election campaign, Devendra Fadnavis’ agenda was pothole-free Mumbai, he ruled Maharashtra for five long years but potholes could not be addressed. After seven and half year CM Eknath Shinde held a meeting with civic road department officials about making Mumbai roads pothole-free in the next two years. He said all roads will be concretized in the next two years. This comes on a day after BMC tried out various pothole filling solutions to address the crater issue.
BMC said two solutions – the use of geo polymer concrete technology and the rapid hardening concrete method – have yielded the desired result. Civic sources said the CM’s decision to concretise roads assumes significance against the backdrop of general elections and legislative polls scheduled to be held in 2024. BMC officials said the laying of cement concrete roads is being done on 236 km of roads in the city while another stretch of Investing to make a mark Most investors with over $30 billion in sustainable assets call it significant.
During the presentation made to the chief minister, the municipal commissioner said that the latest tenders for road works have a clause to construct soak pits at regular intervals on newly made roads, so rainwater does not accumulate on roads. Shinde told the media, “We have chalked out a programme to make Mumbai pothole-free in the next two years. In the next two years, all Mumbai roads will be concretised. Ducts would also be constructed along the median and also a side of the roads so that rainwater can flow away through it. This will ensure that the water level of the road is maintained and all water does not flow and go into the sea.
” Shinde also said that each year the BMC has been making use of cold mix which comes out, causing bikers to slip and it has been decided that potholes would be filled with advanced geo polymer techniques and rapid setting concrete. “This would ensure that Ganpati mandals would not be hassled due to these potholes the BMC chief IS Chahal has assured me,” said Shinde also adding that paver blocks would also be used to fill potholes to ensure these craters do not resurface.
Civic officials said that there would be a CCTV network along these roads to be repaired to continuously monitor the quality of work being done. As for the two techniques used to fill potholes, Ulhas Mahale, deputy municipal commissioner (infrastructure) said while they were making use of paver blocks at pothole-filling sites, the two others used have given good results. On Friday a road below, Eastern Freeway was selected to fill potholes.
Dhananjay Shinde, AAP leader told Afternoon Voice, “Eknath Shinde is been working in politics for 30 years when he couldn’t solve the issue in his hometown Thane how is he going to solve pothole issues of the entire state in two years? He has also stated that solving the issue of potholes is a false claim.”
Manisha Kayande from Shiv Sena said, “Thane, Bhiwandi and many other places are still facing issues of potholes so this statement of resolving the issue of potholes is only to keep his alliance party BJP, happy.”
Charan Singh Sapra, Working President of Mumbai Congress said, “When Eknath Shinde was a part of the Urban Development ministry why he couldn’t work on the issues of potholes. The issue of potholes will not necessarily be complete in 2 years it can also take up to 20 years due to the low-quality material and the corrupt practices of municipal authorities.”
BJP leaders made pre-poll promises to farmers about complete loan write-offs, remunerative prices based on the Swaminathan Commission recommendations, and doubling farmers’ income in five years, but they have not delivered any promise. Incidents of farmers committing suicide are continuing. The state government failed to control farmer suicides. Demonetisation and the implementation of GST have caused a major slowdown in the economy. Even traders are not happy.
Despite this, the implementation of many projects has not been as quick as the government earlier projected. Five years on, the construction of key projects like Mumbai’s trans-harbour link and a coastal road is yet to take off. The grand ‘housing for all’ scheme is lagging far behind targets and the smart cities scheme is doing little to bring about the overhaul that cities really need.
BJP’s populist promises to Mumbaikars:
- Pothole-free roads in 5 years, till then no street tax
- To introduce a mobile application to address citizens’ grievances
- The projects taken up by BMC in the last 20 years under the Public Private Partnership module for education, medical and other projects will be investigated by a retired judge
- 24×7 water to be provided and under Right to Water, every family will be provided 750 litres of water on which the corporation takes an eight per cent charge every year. No more extra charges
- The citizens would be provided with more than 3200 MLD water with the help of Gargai, Pinjal and Daman Ganga dams
- Salt water treatment plant will be set up
- Sewage-treated water will be utilized to wash roads of Mumbai to make the city pollution and dust-free
- Families who are living in flood-prone areas would be given extra FSI so redevelopment of flood-prone area buildings would be easier
- Eight sewage treatment plants will be set up
- Electricity from waste management
- Waste collection vehicle information will be available on mobile phones
- Waste-treated water will be used to wash railway bogies, BEST buses, State transport (ST buses) and private vehicles. A separate place would be provided for the sewage treatment plant
- Separate plants for debris treatment will also be setup
- Unhygienic public toilets will be given free electricity and water as incentives to maintain them well and motivate people to use it cleanly
- To decongest Mumbai city, a ‘Traffic comprehensive Mobility Plan’ will be worked out
- Five new medical colleges will be constructed
- A special budget provision will be made for Mumbai open space and beautification
- Beach Beautification programmes will be undertaken; East Coast, which comes under Bombay Port Trust, will be beautified and kept open to public
- Mangroves theme park will be set up on 30 per cent land of Mumbai city with people’s participation
