Mira-Bhayandar: With heavy rains lashing for the past few days, hundreds of small and big-sized potholes have emerged on the main and arterial roads of the twin-city owing to intense waterlogging.
As a quick remedial measure to get rid of the menace, the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) and the private Metro Rail contractors deployed by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) have started using paver blocks and granular sub-base (GSB) to fill and repair the potholes. According to the civic administration, the worst affected are the asphalt roads which are more vulnerable to potholes.
“Apart from the MBMC, two other agencies including the MMRDA and the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) shoulder the responsibility of repairing the roads. Our thrust is on using the water-bound macadam (WBM) or bituminous mix, but to provide an immediate relief while it's pouring, we are on overdrive to temporarily fill the potholes. The twin-city has received 25% more rainfall than usual so far which has further aggravated the menace of potholes,” said city engineer Deepak Khambit.
The Godbunder-Thane road from Hotel Fountain to Chene village is maintained by the state government’s public works department (PWD). The MBMC has informed the agencies concerned to repair roads which fall under their purview.
Mission to convert asphalt roads into cement-concrete ones
In a bid to get rid of potholes permanently, the MBMC has launched a mission to convert the asphalt roads in the twin-city into cement-concrete ones. Notably, the twin-city has a network of roads measuring around 300km out of which 21km have been concretised so far and work-orders have been issued to contractors for constructing 84 more cement concrete roads having a collective length of around 40km. Local legislators, Pratap Sarnaik and Geeta Jain had raised the issue of potholes and battered roads between Dahisar Check Naka and Bhayandar due to cranes and other heavy equipment being used by Metro Rail contractors.
