BMC prepares to take charge of new roads, flyovers for maintenance.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is preparing to take over showpiece roads and flyovers, which the city’s development authority had constructed and commissioned over the past two years, for maintenance.

This would include the Santacruz-Chembur Link Road, with its double-deck flyover, the Milan and Dahisar rail over-bridges, the Sahar elevated road that leads up to the new airport terminal, the Eastern Freeway and flyovers on the Ambedkar Road.

The norm is that agencies in charge of infrastructure creation such as the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) are to construct roads and then hand them over to the BMC for maintenance. There have, however, been delays in handing over certain roads and bridges to BMC in the past. This has led to blame-games, with agencies pointing fingers at each other when citizens complain of bad roads during the monsoon.

SVR Srinivas, additional municipal commissioner, said, 'We have started discussions with MMRDA about taking charge of all flyovers and roads that have been recently constructed, and are in care of the authority, for maintenance such as the Santacruz-Chembur Link Road, Milan Rail over-bridge, the freeway and so on. Some flyovers on the Ambedkar Road are already in BMC's care, while the rest would also be transferred now. The entire process is likely to take about two months.'


THE INDIAN EXPRESS