India, May 2 -- Despite spending thousands of crores to concretise Mumbai's roads and ensure they remain pothole-free for 25 years, a major lapse on 34th Road in Khar West has exposed glaring quality control failures across all three levels of oversight.

In a surprise inspection on April 7, additional municipal commissioner Abhijit Bangar discovered that the dry lean concrete (DLC) base-meant to provide a strong foundation-was so poorly executed it could be crumbled by hand. The contractor initially claimed the concrete had been cured for the mandatory seven days, but later backtracked in response to a show-cause notice, admitting it had only been cured for three.

"This kind of softness should never be possible in cured concrete," said ...