Mumbai: The city of Mumbai is wearing a pretty grey look nowadays, and it’s not because of monsoon clouds.
From the colonial-era streets of Colaba to Bandra and the suburbs of Andheri, Ghatkopar and Kurla, the city is dotted with cement mixers and ‘Work in Progress’ boards.
The reason? Mumbai’s roads have been dug up for an ambitious road concretisation project, a flagship initiative of Eknath Shinde when he was Maharashtra chief minister.
However, progress has been slow. Officials blame governance hurdles, contractors with little city road experience and the challenge of relocating underground utility lines for the slow progress.
The project, part of the civic body’s plan to give the city a facelift, began in February 2023. In total, 701 km of Mumbai’s roads are to be concretised.
But so far, only 26 percent of the first phase of 324 km has been completed. The work order for the second phase, covering 377 km, was issued in August 2024, but little to no work has begun.
BMC commissioner Bhushan Gagrani has now set a strict deadline and ordered various departments—from sewerage, water and stormwater drainage—as well as power and gas agencies not to dig up any road once concretisation work is complete.
“The works of the roads need to be complete by May 31 and no road should be incomplete or new road should be dug up from June 1,” Gagrani said in an internal department meeting, according to a BMC press note.
The BMC commissioner also gave instructions to complete 75 percent of the first phase and 50 percent of the second by the end of May. Among the contractors on board this project are RPS Infrastructure Ltd, Eagle Infra India Ltd and NCC Ltd.
However, the target set by Gagrani seems ambitious as the project has been already significantly delayed.
“Although the project was started in February 2023, the actual work of digging up roads started only in October 2023,” Abhijit Bangar, additional municipal commissioner (projects) at the BMC, told ThePrint.
“The delays were mainly because the contractors we have appointed for phase 1 are all big reputed contractors. Since the work order was massive, we wanted contractors with a clean reputation. But these are companies that have not worked on Mumbai roads before,” he added.
The Opposition has criticised the civic body for the delays.
Shiv Sena MLA Aaditya Thackeray took to social media platform X to slam the previous Eknath Shinde government.
“Seeing the terrible mess the Eknath Shinde government has put Mumbai in for its favourite road contractors, I requested the BMC commissioner to halt all new works, audit the ongoing works and reduce the proposed concretisation that is unnecessary. More so, while making new roads, better planning and coordination with citizens will help,” he said.
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Dug up everywhere
The Opposition isn’t alone.
In the last couple of months, many prominent Mumbai-based personalities have also commented on deteriorating road conditions on their social media pages.
From comedian Varun Grover to actor Shreya Dhanwanthary, all have asked the BMC the reason for the delays.
We should be able to do something right? Non-cooperation? Stay indoors on purpose? Okay, that’s foolish. We need to funnel our anger to get them to listen! Anything to protest the ridiculous annual digging up of horrible, terrible, no good, very bad roads of Mumbai!
— Shreya Dhanwanthary (@shreyadhan13) February 5, 2025
Stupidity or a scam ?
This foot path was build freshly 4 months ago. Then they dug up the entire road, destroyed the footpath. Now once the road will be ready a new footpath tender will be issued. That will destroy the fresh road. सोन्याची अंडी देणारी कोंबडी. #mumbai #bmc pic.twitter.com/tTOxpacIhM
— sarangsathaye (@sarangsathaye) January 20, 2025
Been in Mumbai for two decades but don’t remember roads being this bad ever. Gullies, main roads, highways, Kandivali to Juhu to Bandra to town – all dug up without any end in sight.
We’re used to living in chaos but current state of pollution and dysfunction should be utterly…
— वरुण 🇮🇳 (@varungrover) February 4, 2025
BMC officials defended the digging, saying it was a result of expediting the work order.
“The citizens’ problem is with respect to the delays and not the actual digging per se, which causes inconvenience,” Bangar, quoted earlier, said.
Bangar said the work order for the first phase was from February 2023 to January 2026 and, barring the monsoon months when the BMC has to stop all work, they have been working continuously.
The contractors appointed by the BMC have experience in building national highways, but concretising city roads has a completely different set of challenges, Bangar said.
“In a city, you work on roads ranging from a width as small as 6 metres to 30 metres. So the challenges are massive like opposition from locals, mobilisation and traffic movements, which added to the delays and actual work started from October 2023,” Bangar said.
Moreover, the work was halted in June 2024 due to the monsoon and only resumed after October 2024.
The BMC aims to achieve 75 percent of the target within the next three months.
Maze of underground utility lines
Officials say governance issues are a reason for the delays but one of the biggest challenges is unforeseen and unmapped underground utility lines.
These include water, sewerage, stormwater drains, power, cable and gas lines.
Sometimes, one road has 50-odd utility lines managed by different agencies, Bangar said.
“And asking them to remove them and cooperate with us in our work takes time,” said Bangar. “A single road normally takes 45 days to complete and with shifting utility lines, we have given a deadline of 75 days.”
But in a meeting with Gagrani, he has given strict instructions to adhere to the 31 May deadline.
“BMC is converting tar roads and roads with paver blocks into concrete roads. So officials should make sure citizens are less inconvenienced,” Gagrani said in the meeting.
“For that, second-rank officials should visit the site to take note of the progress. Citizens should be informed about the progress via sign boards. And before undertaking any new work, make sure the old work is completed.”
Although the utility agencies are toeing the line, ongoing projects by BMC departments like the hydraulic and sewage departments are holding up road works.
BMC officials say they have appointed an independent Quality Monitoring Agency (QMA) to ensure quality even at the ready-mix concrete plant level.
They say that though concrete roads don’t get damaged easily, they can develop cracks because of bad quality, which is why BMC re-digs a road.
“Unfortunately this happens at some places in Mumbai but for that, BMC is levying heavy penalties on contractors and the QMA as well,” a BMC official said
He added that they had drawn up a list of roads in good condition which would be concretised later.
“But I want to assure Mumbaikars that whatever road is dug up now, it will be completed before the onset of the monsoon. Not one road will be dug up during the monsoon while ensuring quality,” Bangar said.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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