Approaching monsoons and Mumbai Roads

I am being forced to write about one of Mumbai’s biggest bugbears again – no choice you see, as the condition of the state of repairs or shall we say dis-repair warrants it! Believe it or not we are in the middle of May, the pre-monsoon showers are expected any time now and the BMC in all its mentally retarded wisdom has decided to start concreting roads in certain parts of Mumbai. Yes, starting is what I said not completing. We have had six months go by since the last monsoon, and now I notice that the BMC commenced concreting a section of the road opposite Raheja Hospital in Mahim! I do not know what quality they will ensure in doing a speed up job, I guess it is just the lure of lucre which keeps these corrupt worshippers of Mammon going.

In the last two months or so, almost every road worth digging has been dug up by some utility or the other. Paver blocks originally laid for ease of installation or maintenance of utility cables, have been removed by various utilities and re-laid. You just need to see the manner in which they have been re-laid to realize that this year we are going to witness massive potholes created by displaced paver blocks apart from the usual damage to macadam roads. Everywhere you travel, you will see the freshly laid paver blocks in narrow strips of two criss-crossing major road junctions. With these potential road traffic stoppers I personally do not think we would require any traffic signals, as these man made speed breakers will definitely bring traffic to a snails pace if not to a grinding halt!

The debris has entered the drains and is definitely going to clog up the drainage system. I have seen debris entering drains in at least a dozen different locations across the city. The BMC machinery claims to have cleaned up the drains in April-May – but what about drains being clogged up after debris has entered these drains post the BMC cleaning. This will definitely have happened as the repair activity is becoming more hectic with the approach of the monsoons, rather than winding down by the third week of May as is the norm.

The digging up of roads is nowadays so frenetic that one begins to wonder what these bunch of buffoons were doing after the previous monsoons. Is it just trying to utilize lapsing budgets or is there a more sinister plan underfoot to bring this humming city to its knees. We have seen terrorist attacks, floods, bomb blasts and a whole lot more, but never has the city succumbed to any of these and has shown its spirit by surmounting all obstacles with dignity without the help of the government or their agencies. The agencies usually come after the disaster. We now have BMC disaster management vehicles doing the rounds of the city – you know the most appropriate place for these vehicles – it should be outside all the BMC offices in the city – the disaster actually is these offices which makes life miserable for the masses!

Do expect lots of flooding this year as well as road accidents due to the various civil works in progress. We have got a stable government in the Center – now it is time to get the BMC juggernaut into shape. It is high time the people started getting involved in the works being carried out – no use saying the other guy will look into it. I was recently in Chennai – another coastal city but what a contrast – clean roads and footpaths – no hutments, excellent roads and it poured when I was there without affecting the daily routine. If Chennai can do it – why can’t Mumbai?

Very few of the projects being executed in the city will have the name of the contractor, the start and finish date of the project and the value of the contract displayed at the site. It is time we start demanding accountability from these people – newly elected MP’s please note – we expect you to perform and make all the people down the line perform. Please do not let us down – we have lived 60+ years post independence on promises – now we want performance! Is that too much to expect?