As BMC polls near, road concretisation works at just 15% in city compared to 53% in suburbs; 17 of 24 wards below halfway mark

As the crucial poll battle for control over the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) approaches, civic records indicate a sharp disparity in the progress of road works – a key electoral issue – across the city, with suburban areas significantly ahead in concretisation compared to the island city. The data shows that road concretisation work is yet to reach the 50 per cent mark in 17 of the 24 main administrative municipal wards in Mumbai.

According to the BMC, concreting work has been completed in only 15.3 per cent of the total roads where it has been taken up in the island city. In contrast, in the suburban belt, the figure is around 53.33 per cent. In Mumbai’s eastern suburbs, the progress stands at 24.6 per cent.

In total, the civic body has taken up concreting works in 2,121 roads, and completed it in 815 (38.28%) roads, while it is in progress in 625 roads (29.46%). Further, the BMC’s records show that concreting work is yet to begin in 681 roads (32%).

The BMC polls are slated to be held on January 15, and the results will be declared the following day.

Slower progress in island city, eastern suburbs

During his tenure as Maharashtra chief minister, Eknath Shinde – who is currently the Deputy Chief Minister – had announced that all roads in Mumbai will be concretised and made pothole-free. Following this, between 2023 and 2024, the BMC had issued tenders worth Rs 17,733 crore to concretise stretches extending to a total of 700 km, comprising 2,121 roads in the island city, and its eastern and western suburbs. Work orders were issued in a phased manner starting from January 2023.

Civic records show that the Dahisar, Borivali and Kandivali areas in the western suburbs have seen the most progress in this regard. According to the BMC’s data, in Mumbai’s R North municipal ward, which covers North Mumbai’s Dahisar, road work has been completed in 63 of the total 93 stretches, which translates to a completion rate of 67.7 per cent.

This is followed by R South ward, which covers the Kandivali area, where work has been completed in 68 (62.96%) out of the 108 municipal wards where it has been taken up. Meanwhile, in R Central ward, under which the Borivali area falls, 115 (62.16%) of the total 185 roads have been concretised.

In stark contrast, in Mumbai’s E ward or Byculla, only one road (1.85%) has recorded completion of work, of the total 54 roads that have been listed for concretisation. Similarly, in D ward, which covers the high-profile Malabar Hill and Grant Road areas, the progress of work stands at 8.8 per cent, which means that the authorities have been able to complete the work in only seven out of the 79 roads here. In Mumbai’s C ward, which covers the Pydhonie and Kalbadevi areas, only 4 (9%) out of the 44 roads have seen work completion.

Speaking to The Indian Express about the non-uniform progress in work, a senior BMC official said that work orders for concreting the roads in the western suburbs were issued in February 2023, while the actual work on the ground started in October that year. Meanwhile, work orders for concreting roads in the island city were issued in October 2023, while the actual works, like mobilisation of resources, began in January 2024 and the civil works began only by October last year.

“The concreting work in the island city started nearly a year later than the suburbs for which the progress over here is comparatively less. At the same time, the island city houses all the VIP locations, therefore we don’t get traffic permission to carry out road works round the clock, unlike in other parts of Mumbai. Therefore, the progress is much slower in the island city,” the official said.

The order for carrying out the work in the eastern suburbs was issued at the same time as the western suburbs, sources said. However, the progress in the eastern part of the city is almost less than half of that in the western suburbs. The BMC’s data shows that all six municipal wards under the eastern suburbs are yet to reach the 50 per cent mark in work completion.

At 10.2 per cent, the slowest pace of work is in the M East ward (Deonar, Govandi areas), where work has been completed in just 9 of the 88 roads, followed by Ghatkopar (14.81%), where only eight of the 54 roads have recorded completion of works. In Mulund, the progress stands at 22.85 per cent, as authorities have completed work in only 16 of the 70 roads here.

“In the eastern suburbs, the contractors have been moving at a very slow pace, prompting us to impose penalties, following which they have gone for an appeal before the BMC,” the official added.

A closer look at the data shows that 17 of the 24 main administrative municipal wards (which is further divided into 227 electoral wards)– which cover over 70% of Mumbai’s overall geographical area – are yet to see works reaching the halfway mark. According to the BMC, besides the C, D and E wards, the G North ward, which covers Dadar, Matunga and Mahim areas, has seen a progress of just 14.58 per cent as only four of the 28 roads here have seen work completion so far.

This is followed by F North ward (Sion, Antop Hill area) where the work is over in 12 out of the 78 roads, marking a progress of 15.38 per cent.

Among the municipal wards in the island city, F South ward (Lalbaugh, Parel areas) has seen the maximum progress at 20 per cent.

Civic officials said the weather is a key factor that has slowed down the work. Civil works like digging and trenching, which are key steps in carrying out concretisation, cannot be done during the monsoon when the soil becomes loose, which takes away around four to five months, an official added.

“All major utilities like electrical cables, telephone and fibre lines run beneath the road, so digging the roads during the rains will expose them to water, which may cause serious accidents. These factors automatically pushed the start of work by five more months,” the official stated.

Most contractual firms that execute the work are new in the field, and have taken more time than usual to chalk out the methodologies to implement the tasks in a city like Mumbai, officials said.