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MUMBAI: Opposition parties have complained that the fines imposed on civic contractors and the quality management agency over cracks in the city’s newly laid cement-concrete roads are negligible given the scale of the project.
In response, a senior BMC official said, “Following the monsoon, the BMC undertook a drive to check for any defects on the roads that were newly laid. This inspection will continue and if other roads laid in recent times also show cracks, more penalty would be levied. In one instance, a penalty two times more than the cost of constructing the defective portion of the road was levied on the contractor.”
A deputy municipal commissioner conducted a special drive to inspect roads, during which various defects were identified. Engineers were issued showcause notices on Dec 30, 2024, and directed to submit their explanations within 15 days. Mumbai BJP president and Bandra West MLA Ashish Shelar, who had previously met the BMC chief to address concerns about substandard roadwork, remarked that fines are ineffective for citizens, who instead want durable, high-quality roads.
“The action is welcome but the fines levied are peanuts. The administration may argue that they are in tune with tender clauses. But citizens don’t care about such penalties and instead want an assurance for well-laid roads,” he said.
SP MLA Rais Shaikh said it was good that the ruling party is taking a stern stand against shoddy roadworks. “This is a bigger scam than the road scam which roiled BMC a few years ago. The administration is not taking stern action against contractors as they should, because the engineers are afraid to take on them. Most of the contractors have political backing and therefore manage to get away with poor work,” said Shaikh.
TOI was first to flag cracks on new CC roads in Santacruz, Bandra, Powai and Lokhandwala, with the first article appearing on Dec 12-13 (online and print). Within hours, Shelar met the BMC commissioner demanding that a special investigation team be set up to look into the work quality.
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