Road concretisation: Rs 38.93 crore fine slapped on nine contractors so far for lapses

Indian Express

19 hours ago

Since the ambitious mega road concretisation project kicked off in October 2023, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has levied a cumulative penalty of Rs 38.93 crore on all the nine contractors, roped in to execute works across the city, for lapses such as delay, bad quality etc. However, the brunt of delayed work has been faced by the city's eastern suburbs wherein the contractor — Eagle Infra — has been imposed the highest penalty of nearly Rs 17 crore.
In June 2022, former chief minister Eknath Shinde, who had just taken charge, announced plans for the mega concretisation project in a bid to make Mumbai's roads 'pothole-free'. Following the announcement, the civic body issued tenders and awarded contracts for work orders in two phases to concretise nearly 700 km of roads across the city at a cost of Rs 17,733 crore. Of the total road length earmarked, 320 km (700 roads) is to be concretised in phase I while 378 km of roads (1,421 roads) are set to be taken up in phase II. According to officials, nine agencies have been awarded work orders in the project — with four contractors appointed for phase I works and five contractors roped in for phase II.
After the tenders for the first phase were awarded in March 2023, work on the project commenced on ground after monsoon withdrawal by October 2023.
Data obtained by The Indian Express shows that between 2023 and May 2025, a total penalty of Rs 38.93 crore has been imposed on all contractors of which Rs 33.71 crore was imposed in penalties under phase I while Rs 5.22 crore has been imposed on contractors of phase II. Furthermore, at Rs 17 crore, civic records show that the highest penalty was imposed on Eagle Infra India, which had been roped in to concretise roads in the eastern suburbs in the first phase. According to the civic body, the penalty was imposed owing to delayed works.
For perspective, phase I encompasses work orders for road concretisation in the western and eastern suburbs, while the contract for concretisation in the island city division was awarded in phase II.
Abhijit Bangar, additional municipal commissioner (Projects), told The Indian Express that penalties have been issued for delay in achieving the timeline, non-adherence to the conditions of the tender before launching works, bad quality of works amongst other reasons. 'While the penalties have been issued against all contractors wherever we observed lapses, the significant portion of penalties have been levied in the first phase. In the second phase, the fines are much less as the work on phase II had commenced only after October 2024,' added Bangar.
'The BMC has zero tolerance for bad quality work. Wherever we have observed bad quality work during our inspection, we have imposed fines immediately and will take strict action against the contractors,' said Bangar. In a bid to address concerns and reports of lapses in quality of work, senior civic officials including Bangar had launched surprise visits to the RMC plants as well as worksites over the past few months to ensure monitoring.
Currently, civil works on the project have been stalled owing to the monsoon season with the balance work proposed to be taken up after the withdrawal of showers, after the first week of October.
So far, civic data shows that nearly 49 percent of its ambitious target to concretise 700 km of Mumbai's roads has been achieved. In the first phase, the BMC has achieved 63 percent of the target with 101.67 km of roads (or 343 roads) completely concretised and 101.68 km partially completed. Meanwhile, in the second phase, 36 percent of the target has been achieved until May 31 with 84.33 km of road length concretised in entirety. Bangar added that while the work has now been stalled owing to the monsoon, the BMC has already started phase-wise planning for execution of works in the coming months. 'We are planning to make our plans available in the public domain to ensure that contractors are more proactive as well as accountable to the people,' he said.