If you have potholes on the roads in your area then you might have to wait until January to get them filled. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has admitted that the asphalt plant will remain shut in December and the production will start by January only. Though administration requested all the wards to carry out the asphalt work from priority contractors, the corporators have raised serious doubts over it.
The BMC had started production of a cold mix in its Worli plant from June this year after modification to existing asphalt plant. But the plant remained closed for many days due to the rainy season and the sufficient amount of cold mix didn't reach wards for filling the potholes. Corporators created a hullabaloo over the issue and asked road department a detail report on the cold mix production in Monsoon. The Road Department submitted the report on Friday saying problems were arising in achieving the desired quality of hot Asphalt mix in Worli plant so the BMC started cold mix production after a trial in 2016-17 monsoon. The cold mix distribution started from June 7 and 1,036 metric ton was produced between May to November this year.
Now, the BMC will use cold mix in the non-monsoon season also. But as per the official report tabled in standing committee, at present the test trial for the cold mix is under finalization stage. Even the other installation work is in progress. The production and distribution will be started by January 2019 only. For annual maintenance purpose, the plant will be closed in December.
Rais Shaikh, leader of Samajwadi Party said, "there are many potholes and bad patches on Mumbai roads. Recently a mother and her daughter lost their life due to uneven paver block patch near Dadar station. Even in Byculla people are facing the issue of bad roads." Asif Zakaria, corporator from Bandra said, "The Road Department failed to distribute cold mix in the monsoon. The plant has remained shut for the last two months and now they are closing it for another month. No ward has hot or cold mix supply and we totally depend upon broken paver block to fill the potholes."
