Over 92% of Mumbai’s 2000 km road network concretised: Ashwini Bhide

For the first time in the 161-year history of the country’s richest municipal body—the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) —a woman took charge as the 32^nd municipal commissioner in March this year. A 1995-batch IAS officer of the Maharashtra cadre, Ashwini Bhide came in place of Bhushan Gagrani, following his retirement. While Bhide has given up her role as additional chief secretary in the chief minister's office, she continues to run the show at the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation, a 50:50 joint venture between the Centre and state government, responsible for executing Mumbai's fully underground Aqua Line 3 that connects Colaba to Bandra and SEEPZ. Bhide—who ranks among Fortune India’s 100 Most Powerful Women—has shown her ability in executing the most challenging urban developmental project—overcoming not just infrastructural bottlenecks but also political and legal headwinds. In an interaction with Fortune India, Bhide believes her role would be all about execution improving governance and raising the funds for the corporation through the issuance of green bonds. While she believes the BMC has been at receiving end of citizens’ angst—sometimes unfairly—Bhide outlines the key initiatives, including pothole-free roads, that the corporation is undertaking.

Mumbaikars have a love-hate relationship with the BMC, which incidentally happens to be the richest municipal body in the country. There is more hate than love, when it comes to governance and accountability—the chasm is huge.

Probably, the only aspect people think of—when it comes to the BMC—is that it's the richest corporation in the country. But let’s not forget that Mumbai is also India’s most densely populated city. To be fair, the BMC has been handling the task reasonably well, despite constraints. There is no dearth of funds, and that is why a lot of services are being offered to citizens. But in a densely populated city where 40% of the population reside in slums, we still have to provide services to each one of them. So, the responsibility is also equally overwhelming—that point, at times, is missing.

But why despite so much effort and spending, the city is yet to get pothole-free roads?

The BMC has put in enough efforts to increase public convenience, to make it easier to do business, and minimise inconveniences—which also need to be appreciated. The corporation gets criticised the same way whether it’s for one pothole, or multiple potholes. The issue of potholes is because the roads are largely bituminous, and we need constant trenching to underlay utilities. Once a bituminous road is broken, with heavy rains it is very difficult to maintain consistency. But the BMC has been working on it. We have started a pothole app, where BMC’s own personnel identify potholes, and the idea is to address them within 24 hours. And that dashboard is available for the public to see.

Besides, the entire road network in the city is getting converted into cement concrete (CC) roads. Of the 2,000 kms in the city, 1,850 kms have already been concretised. In comparison, Delhi has 28,000 kilometers of road. So, you can understand the land scarcity of Mumbai. It's a peninsular city, a linear city with hardly any scope for expansion. The city faces more population pressure than probably Delhi, because of its spread.

But inter-departmental coordination is an issue where freshly laid roads get dug up again.

It's much more coordinated now. But, at times, there are exigencies— for instance, if the water department has to carry out repairs on underground pipes, concretised roads have to be dug up. This activity will go on. Do not expect that once the roads are laid, nothing will change. Also, there are over 27 utilities (public and private) running beneath the roads, across the length and breadth of the city. So, if anybody expects that the road should not be dug up, it is just not possible as utilities need maintenance, and upgradation. The BMC is, however, providing utility ducts while building new roads, and we are also coming up with a trenching policy that offers incentives to all utility firms to house their lines inside the duct. Further, we are also working to ensure that once the utilities are repaired or laid, the road is reinstated properly.

What is your big agenda at the BMC?

I don’t have one single agenda. I always believe governance is not a job which you can show off. It's a job which needs to be done. It's tedious but needs to be done with utter sensitivity, responsibility and accountability. Multiple smaller changes will make a big change. This year we will also raise funds through the issuance of green bonds.

Can you throw light on the spending plan of the corporation?

The BMC has a Rs 80,000-crore budget, which includes huge capital spending. We are implementing multiple infrastructure projects, which include the North Coastal Road and sewage treatment plants (STPs). A couple of STP projects will be completed this year, and some by next December. Over the next three years, we plan to complete the North-West Ring Road, complete the Gargai Dam [on Gargai river at Palghar], and the desalination projects. We plan to make all the roads, even the side strips, either CC or ultra-thin white topping roads [concrete layer overlaid over worn-out bitumen road]. Further, there are projects which will improve the city’s flood resilience, including enhancement of the stormwater drain system’s capacity, and the capacity of pumping water into the sea when there is excessive rain, besides also solid waste management projects. We have also launched a program “Pedestrians First”—which is a very tough task again. So, there is no magic wand to improve the city. You must keep on doing this job consistently, which our ward officers are doing day in, day out. The BMC works 24/7. So, while the city sleeps, the corporation doesn't sleep—many of our maintenance work happens past midnight.

We are bringing in new policies. There is a lot of emphasis on digitization: we have Auto DCR (auto development control rules) to digitally scrutinise building plans and process construction permits. We are also working on an AI policy on how best we can leverage data and analytics to make more data-driven decisions.