Mumbai: BMC to launch dashboard for real-time pothole tracking

Potholed Goregaon-Mulund link road. File Pic/Anurag Ahire

If all goes according to plan, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), will start using a dashboard to trace the filling of potholes this monsoon. Though the dashboard is only for the administration level for now, the BMC officers claimed that it will help improve roads in the city. The dashboard will not only provide the number of potholes but also locations and sizes of it, even the amount of asphalt used and the time required to fill it.

After the successful implementation of a dashboard for COVID-19 patients and hospital beds during the pandemic, the BMC is trying to use the technique in other departments. The latest one is the roads department which will use it to get real-time data of potholes. The department tried to use it to track the progress of roads also, but the results were not made public. Now the corporation is trying to use a dashboard technique for potholes.

Last year, the BMC spent over Rs 400 crore to fill potholes. Though BMC informed the high court in mid-August that it filled over 52,000 potholes, there wasn't an accurate system to measure it. The BMC uses many methods like MyBMCPotholeFixiT app, WhatsApp numbers, social media, and central helpline number but there isn't an integrated system to measure all the complaints related to potholes.

"The dashboard system is in the final stage of development and we have conducted a session for the sub-engineers who are supposed to use it to input data. We are trying to start it next week," said Abhijeet Bangar, Additional Commissioner of the BMC. He added that the system will help to track the exact potholes on city roads on any particular day. "There are 227 engineers appointed across 227 wards, which means every engineer has to monitor 10 km of roads in his/her area. It is quite achievable to track potholes for such a smaller area."

This data will not only reveal the number of potholes but also the BMC will try to measure the size of potholes and the mastic asphalt used to fill it. It will give a fair idea about the stock of asphalt also. This will help us tackle the issue more efficiently," said another official from the BMC.