Mumbai: Two months after repair, Santacruz road full of potholes

Potholes on East Cross Lane on Besant Street, Santacruz on Tuesday. Karma Sonam Bhutia

EVEN as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) claimed that its cold mix for filling potholes would show results this monsoon, its tall claims were washed away in Santacruz, where less than two months after a road was repaired with the cold mix technology, potholes have started to reappear.

The repair work of East Cross Lane on Besant Street in Santacruz West began on April 15 following a bhoomi poojan in the presence of BJP MLA Ashish Shelar. However, hardly two months after repairs began, the condition of the road has deteriorated dramatically, claim locals.

The local corporator, who had initiated the repair work through her corporator fund, has urged the civic body to blacklist and penalise the contractor responsible. “This road is prone to moderate water logging. So, this year we decided to repair it. However, in just two heavy downpours, the material used to fill the potholes was washed off, leaving behind potholes. I have been inspecting the work since we performed the bhoomi poojan there. However, officials visited hardly once,” said Hetal Gala, BJP corporator.

She added, “This is not just one instance, the contractor has a record of shoddy work including on Shirley Rajan Road in Bandra and the stretch opposite Mehboob Studio. The material used was substandard. I have written to civic officials and the roads department to blacklist the contractor.”

Interestingly, BMC officials claimed before the monsoon that the cold mix material would not get washed away.
When contacted about East Cross Lane, a senior BMC official from the Roads Department said, “A hearing was conducted on Tuesday with the contractor and process of initiating appropriate action will start soon. We will also inspect other sites where he was carrying out repair works.”

The BMC, with an annual budget of Rs 27,000 crore, last year spent Rs 70 lakh to procure 38 tonnes of pothole-filling mixture from companies in Austria and Israel. This was used on potholed roads that were repaired even during the monsoon. Locally produced mixture for pothole-filling usually washes off in the rains.

This monsoon, the civic body decided to manufacture almost 2,500 tonnes of cold mix or pothole filling mixture at its own unit in Worli at a reduced cost. This cold mix cost the civic body Rs 28 per kg to produce instead of Rs 170 pe rig, the price paid last year. The BMC then procured the ingredients from the two companies and manufactured the mixture at its plant. The mixture was also tested on some potholes along D N Road, near the civic headquarters.