65% of potholes reported by Mumbaikars in last 7 days unattended
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While rains may have brought a respite to many, the city’s civic body has got their work cut out for them as their helplines have been inundated with pothole complaints since the onset of monsoon last week.
As the country’s financial capital, Mumbai’s roads have never been adequate to support the city’s ever growing needs. Every year, monsoon makes the roads worse and the remaining months are spent trying to mend them.
The recently exposed road scam wherein Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) filed a complaint against six contractors for sub-standard road repair work is only the tip of the iceberg. If the civic body found six guilty contractors after inspecting 34 roads, it’s anybody’s guess how many more we’ll find if we could survey the entire 2000 km road network of Mumbai.
As for 2016, Bombay High Court had ordered BMC to inspect the roads prior to monsoon and fix any and all of them. During the hearing earlier this month, the civic body had assured the court that the roads will be completely rid of potholes by the time monsoon arrives.
But, according to statistics obtained from the BMC, the citizens have reported a total of 149 potholes since last week. That’s over 20 a day, ranging from minor irregularities to massive craters.
Apart from the helpline and Facebook page, BMC had also launched an app for citizens to report potholes. Needless to say, citizens have been busy sending across locations and photographs of the potholes via every medium, with 69 sent via app and 80 via the helpline.
As always, the worst affected are suburban areas like Bandra, Mahim, Chembur etc. In South Bombay, most complaints have originated from Byculla, Lower Parel and Lalbaug.
When contacted, a BMC official confirmed that the civic body has been trying to fill the potholes on a daily basis. But, as of yesterday, around a 100 of them still needed to be fixed.
