BMC to appoint consultants for quality management of Mumbai roads

Mumbai: In a bid to monitor the quality of the roads in Mumbai, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has appointed eight Quality Management Consultants (QMCs) that will oversee, the maintenance and operation of roads, taken up for construction and concretising in the days to come.

These QMCs will also monitor whether the clauses cited in the tenders are being followed by the contractors.

The eight QMCs are private consulting agencies that have an expertise on civil engineering and road maintenance works. The BMC officials said that the QMCs will provide their expertise throughout the year and have been appointed for a period of two years.

P Velrasu, additional municipal commissioner (Projects) said that the QMCs are entirely different from Project Management Consultants (PMCs) which the civic body has appointed for some large-scale projects.

“The QMC will provide an additional layer of supervision and quality monitoring. These consultants will carry out quality checks during and after the construction stages and will certify the work done by the contractors. The appointment of QMCs will ensure that there are no loopholes and high standards of construction works are maintained. It is only after they give us their nod, BMC will approve the work done and make payment,” Velrasu said.

Furthermore, he added that these consultants will also carry out thorough quality checks of the raw materials and ingredients that will be used during the construction of roads including the quality of cement, steel and Ready-Mix Concrete (RMC).

At present, a road network of 2000 kilometres fall under the jurisdiction of BMC — out of which, the BMC officials have claimed that road length till 1,000 kilometres have been concretised and in the ongoing year, the civic body has set up a target of concreting 200 kilometres of the roads.

“The payment will be made to these consultants depending on the volume of work they do. We will prepare a formula that will comprise the length and width of the roads and depending on the area of the construction works covered by them, BMC will make the payment,” shared P Velrasu.

There are a total of seven municipal zones in Mumbai and one consultant has been appointed for the Zones 1-6 each. Meanwhile for the municipal zone 7 which covers the areas Borivli, Kandivli and Dahisar, two QMC have been appointed by BMC.