Mumbai, Oct. 1 -- After a four-month lull owing to the monsoon, concretisation of roads in the city will commence once again on Wednesday, additional municipal commissioner (roads) Abhijeet Bangar told Hindustan Times. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will first tackle 574 partly concretised roads before taking up another 776 new roads for concretisation, Bangar said. Roads narrower than 12 metres may not be concretised to avoid inconveniencing people, he noted. "The plan is not to not concretise the narrower roads, but to hold off concretisation considering individual circumstances, especially as road work when done simultaneously at many places causes huge inconveniences to people," the additional municipal commissioner said. According to the BMC's data, just over half (50.19%) of the road concreting project, which was launched in January 2023, has been completed. Phase 1 of the 'Pothole-Free Mumbai' project, covering 700 roads, is progressing steadily, with 63.53% of the work done, while work on 1,421 roads under phase 2 is 36.84% complete. Out of the 2,121 roads under the project, 771 have been fully concreted, 574 are partially complete, while work is yet to begin on 776 roads. The BMC aims to complete the half-concreted roads within the next three to four months, then take up new roads for concretisation, Bangar said. A majority of the partially concretised roads, at 360, are located in the western suburbs, while the largest chunk of unconcretised roads are in the island city, due to a previously cancelled contract. The BMC's new policy on road concretisation has opened up scope to take up road concreting on a case-by-case basis, depending on local demand, Bangar said. Residents of many areas, such as Mount Mary and the A ward, had objected to concretisation of roads last year, saying the roads were in good condition. "In the case of roads narrower than 9.15 metres, where part of the road is encroached and thus the entire stipulated right of way is not available for concretisation, concretisation will be postponed till encroachments are cleared. Even so, concretisation may be done if there is strong local demand for it," Bangar said. Roads not taken for up concretisation will be redone with mastic asphalt for the time being, he added. Roads narrower than 12 metres, Bangar said, would be checked for quality. "If the subgrade layer of the road is of good quality, and the load of traffic is less, the BMC might consider doing the road with ultra thin white topping (UTWT), wherein a thin layer of concrete is poured directly onto the road," he said. No digging would be needed for white topping roads, he added....