It is usually children who brush up their paper boat making skills, into puddles. However, on Sunday it wasn’t children, who were playing in the rain, but local Shiv Sainiks who were seen floated papers boats in potholes filled with rainwater as a mark of protest against the inaction and apathy by BJP-led Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) towards repairing the pockmarked roads in the twin-city.
As devotees gear up for the final day of immersions for the ongoing Ganesh Chaturthi festivities, the pothole ridden roads in the twin-city are all set to give a bumpy ride for the loving elephant headed God. Apart from floating paper boats in Mira Road, some Sena agitators staged protests by planting saplings on slush filled potholes in Bhayandar and some Sainiks went on to repair roads all by themselves in Uttan.
There are hundreds of small and big pot-holes across the main and arterial roads of the twin-city.
When contacted officials in the Public Works Department (PWD) of the civic body attributed the pot-hole menace to the shoddy work by contractors appointed to execute the Metro line work on.the Mira Bhayandar road. “The rains have not stopped for the past 20 days not only hampering our repair work, but restricting the use of dense bituminous macadam (DBM), however, repair work using WBM (water bound macadam) was on at most of the other major stretches and internal roads.” said a senior PWD officer.
“The entire stretch of our pockmarked road is more like a death trap. Fatal accidents due to potholes have been reported from the city but the civic administration is in slumber as usual.” said Kamlesh Choudhary, a resident of Hatkesh in Mira Road. The recent spell of heavy rains has added to the problem of unfilled potholes and uneven roads, leaving them badly battered and at some places thoroughly washed out.
