Declaring this at a function to inaugurate an Advanced Locality Management (ALM) programme at Mahakali today, Nalinakshan said, ``We are working out projects for arterial roads. Parts of one road will be given to one corporate.'' Corporates are also expected to undertake tiling of the footpaths and cleaning of a stretch with the BMC's help.

The project costs are to be finalised in two months, Nalinakshan said, and the project itself should take off by January. At least 200 kms of the city's 500-kilometre stretch of arterial roads will be beautified. As one corporate cannot maintain one entire road, Nalinakshan proposed to give a two-kilometre stretch to each corporate house. ``Already, a plan has been prepared for the NarimanPoint-Airport road, which is a 30-km stretch. Around 15 companies will be maintaining it,'' Nalinakshan said. The All India Manufacturing Association has already expressed its interest in maintaining the Nariman Point road, he added.

The roads to be taken up include Senapati Bapat Marg, Bandra Linking Road and S V Road. The BMC has already concretised 250 km of the arterial roads, and it is these roads which will be first in line for beautification, said the commissioner. A special committee was appointed two weeks back to guard against `haphazard' beautification and to monitor the work. Architects Rahul Mehrotra, P K Das and Brinda Somaya, BMC Joint Commissioner Ajay Mehta and Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) S P S Yadav will deliberate the manner in which beautification can be undertaken as well as prepare designs for beautification. Their proposals will be given final approval by another committee headed by Nalinakshan, comprising BMC officials and architects. This committee will also decidewhich corporates should be considered for road beautification.

Since the BMC was struggling to balance a Rs 600 crore deficit, the only way to beautify roads was to bring in the private sector, claimed the commissioner. Acknowledging that the project would require the cooperation of residents of the areas concerned, meetings could be arranged between the residents and the corporates, he added. Mahakali residents though drew attention to their local problems, which they hoped would be assuaged by the ALM. As of now, there are 350 ALMs in the city, of which 179 are `fully developed', that is, embarked on vermiculture.