BMC claims it is wary of past scams so wants to ensure transparency; citizens say even the new repairs are shoddy
Representation pic
As potholes surface on roads across Mumbai, questions are being asked why the BMC is taking about five days to take care of each such pit, that too shoddily. Citizens say this long gap in filling the potholes is leading to more craters and is increasing the backlog. Civic officials said the entire process is elaborate to ensure transparency to check malpractices.
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Officials said they used to attend to potholes immediately earlier but that practice had fewer checks and balances and it was difficult to track the quality of material used. After a massive pothole scam rocked the corporation five years ago, it put in place a process to fix responsibility at every stage, including the appointment of contractors.
“The only thing that matters to the BMC is how to swindle taxpayers’ money by allowing shoddy work. What does five days to fill potholes have to do with no involvement of any corruption?,” said those behind Twitter handle Roads of Mumbai that gets several road-related issues almost daily. “It is ridiculous on BMC’s part to claim it takes 5 days to fix a pothole where they just throw some sand and stones using spades.” The BMC had said earlier this month that it had repaired 38,000 potholes since April.
Motorists stay away from potholes on a road inside the Aarey Milk Colony on Monday. Pic/Satej Shinde
A senior official from the Roads department who did not wish to be named said, “We agree that there are potholes as we are yet to close all those which are reported as there is a process of filling these potholes and it is not like earlier where one would go around with a sack of cold mix and asphalt and fill it. Now it has to be reported, attended and closed and all of which takes four to five days. But this has also helped us keep a track of things and that is why there are no scams.”
But despite so many days have passed, the work is not 100 per cent and potholes reoccur, claimed opposition leaders. The BMC’s Twitter account is also filled with complaints, which have given fresh ammo to opposition corporators who allege corruption in the BMC and trash its “no-scam” claim.
‘Look beyond Worli’
“As per the pothole tracking system, there are only 927 potholes on the 2,000 km road in Mumbai. Is it that R48 crore is allocated for filling only these 927 potholes?” asked BJP MLA Ashish Shelar. Slamming the 3D mapping initiative in Worli, the constituency of minister Aaditya Thackeray, he demanded that the potholes be fixed first.
“Is the whole area of Mumbai ever before your eyes? Do you ever see a map of the whole of Mumbai for development? The entire city is filled with potholes but the BMC’s official website says 927 potholes in the city, such misinformation and false numbers are being put up. Citizens deserve better roads in the city and the civic corporation should focus on providing that instead of just mapping the city areas,” said Shelar.
A broken patch covers almost the entire width of a road in Kurla. Pic/Shadab Khan
Earlier this month, the BMC had said that it would make efforts to take care of all the potholes in the city before and during Ganeshotsav. The Congress had responded saying they would give the civic body flowers for each of the potholes they claim to have filled. Opposition leader and Congress corporator Ravi Raja said, “It is so difficult to travel on the city roads as there are hundreds of unattended potholes but the BMC says they have filled 38,000 potholes for which we will give them that many flowers. How can they be happy with a delay in filling the potholes and claim that they are glad there is no scam?
Of course, there is corruption as the potholes [whichever are repaired] are being filled with shoddy material and thus are back with just a few showers of rain.” Meanwhile, TV reports said even Mayor Kishori Pednekar was upset over the city’s roads. She is reported to have demanded to fix the roads at the earliest.
927
No. of potholes in city as per BMC’s tracking platform
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