Mumbai: BMC Invites Fresh Tenders Worth Rs 6079 Cr To Concretise 400 km Of City Roads

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday (Nov 24) invited fresh tenders worth Rs 6,079 crore for the concretisation of 400 kilometres of the metropolis' roads, with officials stating the cost of the works had increased by Rs 200 crore.

The civic body had earlier invited bids for the concretisation of 400 km of roads in the city at an estimated cost of ₹5,806 crore on August 2. But it was cancelled in the first week of November citing poor response.

In a bid to improve the response to the new set of tenders, the BMC has relaxed the Defect Liability Period (DLP) and will now withhold 20% bank guarantee for 10 years. The civic body proposes to release 2% bank guarantee to the contractor every year (bank guarantee helps maintain roads).

A new set of five tenders includes concretisation of roads in the island city, one for the eastern suburbs and three for the western suburbs, they informed.

While Rs 1233 crore will be spent on concretising 71 km of road network is in the island city, Rs 846 crore would be spent on 70 km road network in the eastern suburbs and Rs 4,000 crore would be spent on concreting 275 km roads in the western suburbs.  

''The three tenders for the western suburbs are worth Rs 1631 crore, Rs 1145 crore and Rs 1223 crore, respectively,'' a BMC official said.

The road concretisation projects will be carried out in many areas in the western suburbs like Santacruz East and West, Andheri East and West, Malad, Goregaon, Kandivali and Borivali.

In August 2022, the BMC had started the tendering process for concretising the city's roads and had called it a ''huge step'' towards making them pothole-free in the next two years.

The BMC has already concreted 984.84km roads across the city.

In 2022-23, the BMC has undertaken  concreting projects for 236.58km roads with a provision of Rs2,200 crore. 

According to BMC officials, road concretisation is expensive compared to asphalting the roads but fewer potholes appear on concrete roads, thereby reducing the overall maintenance cost.

The BMC has faced continued criticism for craters on the roads during the monsoon and had floated the concretisation tender, as cement-concrete, in its experience, rarely developed craters. 

In a bid to prevent suboptimal local contractors from the bidding process, BMC has stipulated stringent eligibility criterion for participation in the tender process including mandatory experience in civil engineering road works on the state and national highways. It has also barred joint ventures or consortium models of work will not be allowed in the tenders, and single bidders would need to carry out works as well as pay for manpower and logistics.