Marine Drive too tells BMC not to concretise their road | Mumbai News

Mumbai: The Marine Drive Residents Association (MDRA) has, in a letter sent to its local MLA Rahul Narwekar of BJP, raised opposition to the concretisation of ‘D’ Road (Vinoo Mankad Road) stating that the road is in a ‘perfectly good condition’.
According to a letter written by the president of MDRA, Chandraprakash Singhania, “D Road is an old residential area and in the interest of all residents, the majority being seniors, we humbly request that the plan to concretise D Road (Vinoo Mankad Road) be shelved.”
Referring to many recent reports in TOI where recently laid concrete roads have shown surface cracks, they have said that this is also a reason they would not want their road to be concretised.
The secretary of the association, Anil Bhatia, said that D Road, which is asphalted, is smooth and they wish it continues to stay as such. “Our road is in good condition and any substandard work done on it will deteriorate the road condition quickly,” said Bhatia.
Concretisation of D Road is a part of BMC‘s mega road concretisation plan. Ashwin Agrawal, treasurer of the association, said that it was in the first week of December that plans to concretise D Road were first brought to their notice. “We immediately resisted it because we do not see any reason why the road should be concretised. There are many other roads where repairs are needed, so why take up a road like ours which is in good condition? The local MLA’s office was immediately informed about this and we have managed to stall the works for now,” he said.
Harshita Narwekar, former BMC corporator, said that the local MLA has instructed the central agency not to concretise the road and the letter sent with the residents’ concerns has been shared with the ward as well.
TOI recently reported a similar instance where BMC’s plans to concretise Mount Mary and Kane Road in Bandra West were also met with resistance from the local ALM.
Following this, local MP of Mumbai North Central constituency, Varsha Gaikwad of Congress, took to social media over plans to concretise Mount Mary Road, alleging that this is nothing but an exercise in enriching contractors at the cost of residents’ lives.
The BMC has taken up the concretisation of over 700 km of road works in Mumbai in a bid to ensure that they remain pothole-free.