After minister lesson, a pothole count: ‘all but 219 fixed’

L Ward has the highest number awaiting repair, 27. South Mumbai (Patil had driven to sites there) has 15 potholes. The Marine Drive stretch, partly in A Ward and partly in C Ward, has 3; the stretch towards Babulnath and Peddar Road has 2, , according to BMC data as on July 29.

“Repair work on the unattended potholes will be carried out very soon,” said A V Ralkar, chief engineer, roads. “The rains have been continuous… it will be difficult to repair all potholes during the monsoon without a dry spell of at least 3-4 days.”

Patil had given the BMC a 10-day deadline. If there is a dry spell of 2-3 days, the BMC will repair at least all major roads, said Aseem Gupta, additional municipal commissioner. “Pothole repair during monsoon is not a very technically sound decision as all the patchwork comes out within days, but with the issue having come into the limelight we will have to give it priority,” he said. On Thursday, for the first time this monsoon, the BMC used the jet patching machines bought last year at Rs 2.5 crore. The machines had been lying unused since last year.

Leader of the Opposition Rajhans Singh challenge the pothole count. “The BMC is lying. There might be over 2,000 potholes in Mumbai, not 200.” Of Rs 36 crore given to 24 wards, they have spent Rs 17 crore on road repair. “We keep Rs 4 crore in hand for other emergency pothole repairs, specifically for the Ganesh festival,” said Ralkar. The condition is that only 25 per cent of the allotment should be used before the monsoon, but some wards have already spent it all, an official of the department said.

“I had pointed out at least 10 potholes in just one patch, so now if the data shows a total of 5 potholes in A Ward, C Ward and D Ward, isn’t that a little odd? There should certainly be more than 200 potholes in Mumbai. We have to take into account even smaller roads. There are so many potholes on just main roads.”
Jayant Patil, Guardian Minister