Mumbai’s Pothole-Free Dream Turns Chaotic as BMC’s ₹17,734-Crore Plan Faces Delays and Fallout

A dug-up road in Lower Parel, South Mumbai. Ravikant Prajapati, who stays in Matunga Labour Camp and works in Lower Parel, finds his travel time has doubled.
| Photo Credit: By Special Arrangement

A “pothole-free” city: That is what Mumbai’s Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), India’s richest civic body, plans for the metro. The city administration has excavated 525 km of roads—or one-fourth of Mumbai’s roads—in an ambitious bid concretise them. As a result, the populous city grapples with the massive traffic congestion, dust, air pollution; the project has upended the delivery of basic civic services.

The plan goes back to 2022 when Eknath Shinde, after taking charge as Maharashtra Chief Minister, announced he wanted to make Mumbai “pothole free”, adding that all roads will be concretised. In June 2022, out of Mumbai’s road network of 2,050 km, nearly half, or 1,244 km, were already concrete. After Shinde’s announcement BMC issued tenders and awarded contracts in 2023 to make concrete 700 km of roads (of 756 km roads left) at a cost of Rs.17,734 crore, in two phases.

While work on the first phase (a target of 321 km) started in March 2023, the second phase (381 km) started in October 2024. But as per data accessed by Frontline on April 10, the BMC has achieved only 21 per cent of its target of the first phase; and the second phase is moving at snail’s pace. Today, 525 km of roads have been dug up across the city.

After BMC was severely criticised by Opposition parties as well as by civil society members for digging up the city, the Commissioner and State-appointed administrator Bhushan Gagrani, on March 25, directed officers to not permit any new excavation, and to complete the concretisation of roads that have already been dug up, by May 31.

Meanwhile, Mumbaikars find their travel time has extend hugely. “I travel by bike. Generally, I need 35 to 45 minutes to travel one way. But because of the concretising work everywhere, I need one to one-and-a-half hours during the peak time”, says Kapil Prabhudessai, who stays in Goregaon and works in Andheri said. Ravikant Prajapati stays in Matunga Labour Camp and works in Lower Parel, finds his travel time has doubled. “Beyond the traffic congestion, the project has created multiple problems for Mumbaikars”, he says.

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To begin with, several fire incidents have taken place due to gas pipelines ruptured during the excavation work. One person lost his life, and two others were injured on March 9 in Andheri when a fire broke out after a gas pipeline was damaged by an earthmover. Earlier, on February 27, an earthmover, parked on the road, caught fire, again after a blaze erupted from a damaged gas pipeline. There have also been instances where sewage lines have been damaged.

As many as 2,413 trees have been damaged since the road work began. As many as 378 notices have been issued by the BMC’s Tree and Garden Department to the civic roads department, and other agencies, for tree damage.

Although BMC aims to complete the roadwork by May 31 (on stretches already excavated) several obstacles are slowing down the pace of work. “In many places, there are no proper charts and maps of utility lines beneath the roads. This is leading to the damage. It takes time to repair the lines and this delays the work on the roads”, said a contractor a recent meeting with the BMC and Gagrani. Also, as the roads are always operational, the moving vehicles cause delays too.

‘Poor quality’

Meanwhile, BMC has started taking to task contractors whose work has been of poor quality: Some concrete roads have developed cracks already. Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) alleged corruption during tenders process. BMC soon slapped penalties on several contractors: As on April 15, the BMC has charged penalties amounting to Rs.3.5 crore for poor quality work. “We will not tolerate any compromises the quality of work. BMC has asked IIT Bombay experts to check the projects and supervise. Also, contractors must work only if a BMC engineer is present at the site,” said Bangar.

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Civil society members have also criticised the BMC as well as Shinde, now a Deputy Chief Minister, for the state of affairs. “The rush to issue tenders before the Assembly election has created this mess”, said Mahadev Shelar, an activist who has focused on Mumbai’s civic issues for the past 40 years. “Poor planning by the BMC and pressure from politicians have together made Mumbai’s roads congested”, he added.

Defending the project, Rahul Shewale, former chairman of standing committee, BMC, told Frontline, “The BMC used to spend Rs.800 crores every year to repair potholes. So, it decided to overcome these issues by concretising the roads… IIT Bombay had also supported this idea”. He added, “I accept that people are facing problems. But this is a long-term solution towards the betterment of Mumbai’s roads”.

In fact BMC had started concretising Mumbai’s major roads a decade ago, as a reponse to potholes that appear on aphalt roads due to harsh weather conditions, but also corruption. Now it is a race against time for the BMC: The deadline of May 31 looms and the monsoon is expected in June.