BMC’s pothole tech fails again
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s efforts to ensure pothole free roads in the city has again encountered a hurdle, after one of its much touted cold-mix technologies failed to deliver results this monsoon.
Following the repeated failure of the hot-mix technology, this year, the civic body introduced three new cold-mix technologies including wonder patch, patchmaker and road bond. However, of them, patchmaker has been found to be ineffective in pothole filling works during the monsoons.
The BMC has appointed M/s Shaunak Infrastru-cture to supply patchmaker material to contractors for pothole repairs. Most of the roads allotted to patchmaker contractors are in posh areas including Colaba, Nariman Point, Malabar Hill, Cuffe Parade, Bandra and Khar.
Ravindra Ghodke, chief engineer (roads), admitted that the patchmaker technology has failed to yield desired results.
“At some of these places, the bonding work has not been happening, because of which the material is coming off. We have given the supplier another 10 days to rectify the defects. If the repair works are again found to be unsatisfactory, we will ask the contractors to fill potholes by using other two cold-
mix technologies,” he said.
According to civic officials, the potholes filled by patchmaker technology are found to be defective at 30 places across the city.
The BMC’s Standing Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) had recommended the use of cold-mix technologies and the civic officials had even carried out trials last year before finalising the usage.
However, STAC chairman N.V. Merani said, “There is nothing wrong with the cold-mix material. We had asked civic officials to pre-test the material before its use. The contractors may not have followed the guidelines properly.”
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