After facing a lot of flak over the condition of roads during the monsoon, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to introduce new tender conditions this year. Civic officials hope these conditions will be help in sprucing up the city’s roads.
Every year, the civic body awards contracts to bidders for construction and resurfacing of roads in the city. According to the civic officials, inferior quality of work has led to potholes and pockmarks on road.
The BMC used to allow laying of underground ducts only for new cement concrete roads. Now, however, a major tender condition for new asphalt road contracts will also include laying of cross ducts to reduce trenching. Additional municipal commissioner S.V.R Srinivas said, “Trenching is one of the major reasons for bad roads as they are dug up by several utilities for laying of their lines. Construction of cross pipes along the roads is expected to reduce trenching, thus minimising the risk of roads getting damaged.”
According to civic officials, every year, over 400 km of roads are dug by various utilities to lay their lines. This leaves the road surfaces battered due to poor refilling works.
To avoid frequent trenching, the pipes will be laid along the roads and a cross connection will be made between them every 100 metres. The utilities will be allowed to lay underground cables only through these pipes. The cross connection will also help repair faults in their lines, if any, without digging up the roads for this purpose.
Another condition is the introduction of roughness index, which the civic body will be stipulating for every road. The contractor will have to maintain that index, failing which he will be denied payment.
“We will be measuring the roughness index of the roads that are completed. If the surface is rougher than the index, the contractor will have to do the work again. Unless the surface quality doesn’t match our standards, he will not be paid,” said an official from the roads department.