Bak Bak Bilal: Why Do Mumbai Roads Get Washed Away Every Monsoon?

Ever wondered why the roads in Mumbai disappear every monsoon? Why is it that the richest municipal corporation of India fails to make stable roads? The BMC has a budget of more than Rs 37,000 crores annually, and its surprising how Mumbaikars have to wade through knee-deep water every monsoon. Here is a list of 5 reasons as to why Mumbai roads disappear every monsoon.

1. Initial Contour survey
   Once the contractor is given the tender to build a road, there is a survey team which inspects the land the roads needs to be built upon. The survey team’s job is to provide the slope, width and every other detail which would make the road a long lasting one. However, the first stage itself is not taken seriously which is why it’s the primary reason that the roads are so bad.
   
2. Quality Maintenance
   Every road requires a certain type of material for it to be strong. The road can only be of only two types - concrete or tar and coal aka dambar. The material required to make these roads ranges from very cheap rates to very expensive ones. The durability depends on how good the materials are. What the contractors end up doing is that they submit bills to purchase the most expensive material for these roads and end up using the cheapest ones. On paper, these roads have been built with excellent materials, but in reality these roads get washed away every monsoon.
   
3. Faulty Repair Work
   There are times when the roads are built fine, but they need to be dug by other departments for purposes like drainage maintenance, installation of water pipelines and placement of cable lines. The people who dig these roads fail to make the road as it was before they dug it and the contractor will raise his hands up by saying that this is not his fault and the blame game leaves the road untouched.
   
4. Weather
   There are times when absolutely perfect roads get ruined due to harsh weather conditions. There is not much you can do about this.
   
5. Accountability
   The BMC puts the blame on MMRDA and the MMRDA puts the blame on BMC. The government is not strict on the contractors who undertake the road work. Accountability needs to be fixed. Unless and until you put accountability. You put them behind bars, cancel their licenses forever, then only these things will stop.

There is also a very important declaration. The contractor has to declare once he has built the road. It is called the DLP, which is the defect liability period or an assurance for a certain period of time by the contractor that if the road gets ruined in this period then the contractor has to it with his own money.

Editor: Veeru Krishan Mohan
Cameraman: Sanjoy Deb
Assistant Cameraman: Gautam Sharma
Producer: Bilal Jaleel