Mumbai: Former Congress corporator and the opposition leader in the BMC, Ravi Raja, has objected to the civic body’s decision to spend Rs84 crore to fill up patches on Mumbai roads.
Raja said as per the BMC’s tender clause, the contractor who has won the bid worth Rs 6,000 crore for road concreting should fill up the bad patches too.
Contractors shirking their responsibility
The civic administration has given a work order of 400km of road network and out of 900 roads the work has begun on 86. Despite getting work orders, contractors are shirking their responsibility of filling bad patches saying they have not started their work yet. Therefore, the BMC has been permitted an expenditure of Rs84 crore for maintenance. Raja alleged such an act on the part of the administrator is illegal.
The BMC’s denial has put it in the dock, though it has clarified that it will recover the money from the contractors. Filling up of potholes and repairing the roadsides are some works which will be done under the Rs84 crore contract. The civic body has set a target of June 15 for this.
A 2,000km road network is under the BMC’s jurisdiction and it has already concretised 1,000km. It is slowly turning asphalt roads into cement concrete roads.
Raja told the Free Press Journal that there is no one to keep a tab on the administration. The decision to spend Rs84 crore on the bad patches is illegal and unjustifiable, he said. “If the contractor is not ready to take responsibility, will they pay money to the BMC afterwards?” he asked.
