Fed up of waiting for authorities to fill potholes on WEH, 4 bikers take matters into their own hands

What do you do when the system fails you?

Most, either rant about the lack of good governance or learn to live with the imperfections of our everyday lives. A select few, however, take charge and try to bring about a change.

Case in point, a group of four bikers who got fed up with waiting for authorities to pay heed to the worsening pothole situation on the Western Express Highway (WEH) and decided to fill the potholes themselves.

Karan Mendon, along with friends Yogesh Ovalekar, Anil Borkar and Ronak, identified a particularly bad stretch of road on the WEH after Magathane flyover in Borivali and filled five ‘back breaking’ potholes with cement and sand on Wednesday morning.

“Fed up of waiting for the authorities to do something and watching several two wheelers fall due to huge potholes right in the middle of western express highway…Least we could do as bikers and more importantly alert citizens was to avert a major life taking accident,” Mendon wrote in a Facebook post, after having successfully completed the job at hand.

Mendon and friends took the help of a local contractor to fill the potholes but, as one can see from the pictures, didn’t shy away from lending a helping hand themselves.

Interestingly, the idea behind taking ownership of the problem wasn’t to just ‘stick it to the authorities’. In his post, Mendon maintains that the intention is to highlight the fact that sometimes, as citizens, we need to do things ourselves.

“Now friends this post is not for self promotion or criticizing the government but to bring to the notice of everyone that soon we will have to do things ourselves. Be it traffic, bad roads, garbage, water shortage… The list is long ! Yes it is sad and scary but this is the harsh reality! No one is bothered about the common man,” he further wrote in his post.

Incidentally the WEH, which is one of the busiest roads in Mumbai, is also among the most pothole-ridden highways in the city.

In fact, according to one estimate, just the potholes on the Western Express Highway increase the average commute of motorists time between 10 to 30 percent during peak hours.

Now, before you start blaming the civic body for their lack of apathy, you should know that the BMC isn’t responsible for maintaining the WEH.

In reality, it’s the Public Works Department (PWD) which is responsible for maintaining the entire highway. As for the dozen flyovers on the WEH, they fall under the purview of PWD and Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC).