Mumbai: BMC converting asphalt roads into concrete ones to fix pothole problem

The Mumbai civic body has launched a mission to convert the asphalt roads in the city into cementconcrete ones in a bid to rid them of potholes a chronic problem in monsoon responsible for many accidents and casualties The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC seems also keen to avoid public wrath ahead of the crucial civic elections the schedule of which is yet to be announced over the politically sensitive pothole issueOf the 2055 km road network in Mumbai the BMC has already converted more than 50 per cent of asphalt roads into cement concrete CC ones according to a senior officialBMC Additional Municipal Commissioner P Velarasu said the civic body has converted roads measuring 1030 km into CC roads and is aiming to cover the entire network in the next five yearsGoing by the current pace we have targeted to convert all the remaining roads into CC roads in the next five years Velarasu told PTIHe added that while asphalt roads are suitable for dry climates they dont sustain for a long time where there is heavy rainfall and water seepage Also it is an international trend to construct CC roads to address the problem of potholesCitizens especially motorists face a lot of inconvenience due to the roads pockmarked with potholes Motorists complain of getting physically and mentally exhausted during the journey due to potholes and also vehicles get damaged Hence they have decided to speed up the work of constructing CC roads by replacing asphalt he saidThe civic body had received over 10340 complaints regarding potholes with a collective size of 17000 square meters on the city roads till midJune from April 1 this yearCompared to the same period last year the number of new potholes on Mumbai roads is less this year officials saidFor registering complaints about potholes the civic body has developed an app besides providing a facility to lodge complaints through websites social media and a tollfree helplineAlso Read Mumbai 11315 took free booster shots in city on Day 1The BMC has given around Rs 2 crore each to 24 wards for fixing the potholesThe BMC claims that it repairs craters within 48 hours of receiving complaints and uses a cold mix a specialised asphalt for the purpose The civic body had supplied 422 tons of dry cold mix to the 24 wards across Mumbai till last weekThe civic body has been constructing CC roads for the past several decades but a fewer number of roads were converted to CC roads till the past few yearsAccording to the civic body it had converted over 800 kilometres of roads into CC roads in the last 56 yearsVelarasu said the BMC has decided to go for all CC roads despite high construction costs as compared to asphalt roads to overcome the menace of potholes However considering their life cycle the CC roads prove more costeffectiveIf you see the life cycle cost cement concrete roads are cheaper Once built they dont need to be looked after again provided they are constructed properly he addedHe said that another reason for switching to CC roads from asphalt roads is the long lifespan of the CC roads though they incur 4050 per cent more costCompared to the 45 year lifespan of asphalt roads CC roads have a lifespan of at least 20 years and if constructed properly they could last even 30 years Velarasu addedOfficials said asphalt roads develop potholes after a few years due to heavy vehicle flow and water seepage Due to pressure of heavy vehicles roads develop cracks and during rains water seeps in from all the sides developing craters they addedBeing a coastal city Mumbai receives around 3000 mm of rainfall per yearHe said the civic body is giving priority to bigger roads for converting them into CC roads along with smaller onesTo avoid repeated digging of roads BMC will keep flexible pavements for various utilities like sewage lines water pipelines power lines and telephone wires alongside the CC roads Velarasu addedExperts are also of the view that CC roads are the only solution for Mumbai to address the pothole issue They however expressed apprehension that CC roads might flood due to the lack of percolationIn fact the lack of percolation is one of the reasons for increased flooding in Mumbai suburbs Also all societies now either concretise their compounds or put tiles which prevents percolation said AV Shenoy a transport activistHe also said the BMC has taken care of the nonpercolation issue in BRIMSTOWAD a project to improve stormwater drain network and capacity by increasing the runoff coefficient from earlier 05 to 10 but in many places the SW drains are not sufficient to carry the rainwater during a heavy downpourVelarasu however said the water percolation rate will decrease due to the building of CC roads We are going to integrate the CC roads with the soak pit he addedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday 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