Opposition slams BMC's cold-mix solution

Mumbai: Irked over the perceived failure of cold-mix material in pothole filling works, corporators in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) have demanded third-party audit of the material.

Saying that cold-mix has failed to deliver results, they have also raised doubts over the civic administration’s claims of it being a cheap and an effective material.

Raising the issue of cold-mix material in the civic standing committee meeting on Wednesday, Opposition leader Ravi Raja from Congress said, “The civic administration had assured that the cold-mix material was full proof for pothole filling works with a guarantee of one year. However, it washes away in heavy rains in couple of days.”

“There should be a third party audit of cold-mix material. We are not concerned about whatever mix they use. All we want is that city roads should be pothole free,” he added.

Supporting Mr Raja, Samajwadi Party corporator Rais Shaikh said, “The third-party audit should be held of pothole filling works by a reputed institute like IIT-Mumbai or VJTI.”

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Manoj Kotak said, “The BMC is claiming cold-mix is cheap, but its claims are fake.

The civic administration should include establishment, capital and transport cost before giving the final cost of cold-mix material. Only then we will come to know whether cold-mix is cheap or not,” he said.

However, civic officials said that cold-mix is being used to fill up potholes on city roads, which do not fall under the Defect Liability Period (DLP), but if there is a bigger pothole, it may not be possible to fill it up.