Mumbai: The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) claims to have filled up 6,045 potholes across the metropolis from April 1 to July 24. However, there are several thousands more which need filling up and it is not clear when that will happen.
Ravi Raja, a former leader of the opposition in the BMC, said, “The potholes come up with great regularity because the original work itself is shoddy. If the contractors selected by the MCGM had done a good job initially, there would have been no potholes. These potholes are proof of massive corruption in the civic corporation.”
Where has all the money gone?
“In May-June, the MCGM had floated a tender for ₹250 crore for pothole filling and gave ₹2 crore to each ward for the same. Where has all the money gone? There are more than 16,000 potholes in the city,” Raja added.
Following heavy rains, thousands of potholes have cropped all over the city and suburbs like in the past years. These not only slow down vehicular traffic, but also pose a major danger to pedestrians.
“Parel flyover is a disgrace to the city and no one in the BMC appears to be bothered about it. The problem had started even before the rains. So it is wrong to blame the potholes here on the rains,” said Chandrakant Mhatre, a local citizen. The Lalbaug and Sion flyovers are fast catching up with Parel flyover in terms of potholes and uneven surfaces.
The BMC has carried out several experiments on roads to make the city pothole-free but without much success. Till date, 512 metric tonne of dry mix has been provided to 24 administrative wards in the city to fill up the craters. However, the work carried out by the contractors is shabby, complain activists.
The city witnessed heavy rains last week and that has increased the number of bad patches. The civic body has received several complaints about potholes from citizens through websites, mobile apps, social media and toll-free numbers. Additional municipal commissioner, P Velrasu, has started inspecting the work along with senior civic officials of the road department at several places in the city from Sunday.
BMC uses M-60 and reactive asphalt to fill up potholes
The BMC is using rapid hardening of concrete (also known as M-60) and reactive asphalt to fix potholes this year. After taking a review, he instructed the officials to fill all the bad patches on all the roads, including the eastern and western express highway and eastern freeway up on priority.
“Several teams have been formed for co-ordination to detect bad patches and get them filled in the proper manner on war-footing. Contractors have also been appointed in seven zones for two years to get the bad patches repaired.
However, the citizens and activists are not convinced by the BMC’s claims. “The civic body is spending crores but their work is shabby,” said Nikhil Desai, an activist from Matunga. “The BMC experiments with several different technologies but it gets washed out with heavy rain,” said Vinod Gholap, a resident of Malad. Godfrey Pimenta, an activist from Andheri.”
Funds allotted for potholes
Potholes filled from April 1 to July 24: Total 6,045
Funds to fill potholes
₹125 crore at zonal level
₹2 crore each for 24 administrative wards
Material used: 512 metric tonne dry cold mix
Road network in city: 2050km
Asphalt road: 1058km
Concrete road:1056km
