Mumbai citizens angry as road sides dug up for cable laying are not restored in time

MUMBAI: Mumbai's underground is a maze of essential utility cables. Be it for electricity, water, sewage, telecom, internet or gas, they all run beneath the city’s roads.
But once these cables are laid, residents across various neighbourhoods share a common grievance: shoddy reinstatement work. A recent example was that of Bandra's 27th and 28th roads where former Congress corporator Asif Zakaria said that it being a paver block road, the pavers were removed to lay a utility line. "Now the roads have been reinstated but the pavers above it haven't been placed," he said. However, BMC said the road concerned was planned to be taken up for concretisation, but after monsoon.
Then there are many like Mehjabeen Barwani, secretary of Juhu ALM, who complain that road restoration after utility cables are laid underground is poorly executed, often lacking proper supervision from civic authorities. "While the utility agency lays the cables, there is a civic body-appointed contractor who is supposed to reinstate it. As citizens we have to keep chasing them to ensure that the reinstatement is done properly. Senior citizens especially find it difficult to walk on these stretches if there is debris lying around," Barwani said.
BMC has guidelines for trenching and reinstatement, and charges utility agencies what it calls "reinstatement charges". The charges vary based on the trench size and whether it's for footpath or main carriageway. For instance, for a trench size of 0.60m X 1m on a footpath, the charge is Rs 10,454 when it's a surface with concrete finishing and Rs 12,877 if the trench size is 1m X 1.5m. Meanwhile, in case of carriageway, if the surface is of cement concrete, for a trench size of 0.60m X 1m the charge will be Rs 32,091.
Further, civic guidelines also lay down penalties to be recovered from utility agencies or ward appointed contractors for various lapses observed during the excavation and reinstatement of trenches. This could be for a delay in starting of work (a penalty of Rs 10,000 on per day basis), over 5-day delay in completion (Rs 15,000 a day) and also if reinstatement of trenches is not done properly (Rs 50,000/day).
Motorists like Dhaval Shah, a Lokhandwala resident, say uneven patches — strewn with debris, loose stones, and incomplete stretches — turn daily commutes into a bumpy ordeal, adding to the frustration of navigating Mumbai’s already congested roads. "Very recently while driving from SV Road towards Seven bungalows in Andheri (West) at the entrance of a slip road there was trenching work that has been ongoing for almost a month. Ideally, such work should be taken up and completed within a definitive time-frame instead of the trench being kept open for days together, causing inconvenience to motorists. Many times, we also find that when the road is not reinstated as per specifications, it becomes uneven, making it inconvenient for motorists."
Chandivali resident Mandeep Singh Makkar, founder of Chandivali Citizens Welfare Association, pointed out that even while orders have been issued by BMC that no new concrete road works would be taken up, utility agencies are continuing to open up side strips. "No one is against the work of these agencies, but there should be a definite time-frame to complete them," he said.