PWD

Sion-Panvel Highway

Here’s why Sion-Panvel Highway may be Mumbai’s worst road 01:10

potholes

Sion-Panvel Highway (PHOTO BY K C SINGH)

Devendra Fadnavis

Potholed surface and incomplete repairs have madearguably the worst road in the city. And there’s no one to take responsibility for it.The contractor, Sion Panvel Tollways Pvt Ltd (SPTPL), abandoned its task of maintaining the highway from January this year after the government decided to waive toll for light vehicles and school buses. The state Public Works Department is now set to black list the contractor.“We have called for reports and will initiate the process to blacklist the old contractor. We will recommend it to the government,” said SW Wandekar, chief engineer (Mumbai Division), PWD. With no contractor to repair thefor over eight months, the PWD finally appointed a new contractor to repair the highway just a few weeks ago.In December last year, SPTPL handed over the toll plaza to the state, citing non-payment of dues to the tune of Rs 689 crore. Last month, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) leader Sandeep Deshpande took up the issue with the PWD asking it to take action against the contractor. “It’s been eight months since the contractor abandoned the highway and has left lakhs of commuters to suffer on potholed roads. The PWD must immediately blacklist the contractor and get the highway repaired and recover the cost from the company,” Deshpande said.An SPTPL official said that the firm had exited the contract. “Since January this year, we are no longer associated with the project and have nothing to do with it. We have not received any notice or communication for blacklisting from the PWD. We will reply when we get a notice,” the official said. SPTPL official said that the toll waiver for light vehicles meant that the maintenance contract was no longer viable. “With these conditions, no corporate would come forward for any PWD projects. It becomes financially unviable,” the official pointed out.With no other option left to decongest the highway, the Navi Mumbai traffic department filled up potholes along a one-km stretch last month. In the same week, the highway saw a major traffic jam, this time stretching for three kilometres between Kharghar and CBD Belapur in Navi Mumbai, thanks to a combination of potholes and road repair work.PWD officials also said that some portions of the road were constructed in asphalt instead of cement concrete. “The entire road was supposed to be made in cement concrete but the contractor left some stretches and surfaced it with asphalt. These are the stretches that have the most potholes. The new contractor has been asked to relay them in cement concrete. The highway will be free of potholes once we get a few dry spells,” a PWD official said.Chief Ministerhad told the state assembly last year that the amount spent on repairs would be deducted from the compensation being given to the contractor and toll operator after the exemption of toll for light vehicles.The Congress-NCP government had awarded tenders for the Rs 1,220-crore project, which involved widening the road and making it partially signal-free, to SPTPL on a build, operate, transfer basis with a concession period of 17 years and five months. The company was to collect toll and maintain the road. In 2015, the BJP-led state government scrapped toll for most categories of vehicles and agreed to pay a monthly compensation to the contractor. The widening project later got embroiled in litigation between SPTPL and the state government.