Asphalt-to-concrete Road Conversion Progresses in Mumbai

Brief 

A senior municipal official in Mumbai, India, says crews have converted more than half of the city’s asphalt roads to cement-concrete roadways, and the plan is to have the entire 1,275-plus-mile road network converted in the next five years. The conversion is part of an effort to cut down on potholes, which are a major problem due to heavy rainfall.

Insight

umbai: The Mumbai civic body has launched a mission to convert the asphalt roads in the city into cement-concrete ones in a bid to rid them of potholes, a chronic problem in monsoon responsible for many accidents and casualties.

The Shiv Sena-controlled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) seems also keen to avoid public wrath ahead of the crucial civic elections, the schedule of which is yet to be announced, over the politically sensitive pothole issue.

Of the 2,055 km road network in Mumbai, the BMC has already converted more than 50 per cent of asphalt roads into cement concrete (CC) ones, according to a senior official.

BMC Additional Municipal Commissioner P Velarasu said the civic body has converted roads measuring 1,030 km into CC roads and is aiming to cover the entire network in the next five years.”Going by the current pace, we have targeted to convert all the remaining roads into CC roads in the next five years,” Velarasu told PTI.

He added that while asphalt roads are suitable for dry climates, they don’t sustain for a long time where there is heavy rainfall and water seepage. Also, it is an international trend to construct CC roads to address the problem of potholes.

Citizens, especially motorists, face a lot of inconvenience due to the roads pockmarked with potholes. Motorists complain of getting physically and mentally exhausted during the journey due to potholes and also vehicles get damaged. Hence, they have decided to speed up the work of constructing CC roads by replacing asphalt, he said.