Why not use toll money to repair pothole-riddled roads? asks HC

Press Trust of India  |  Mumbai 

The on Tuesday said it was unfortunate that arterial roads and highways across continued to remain riddled with potholes year after year and asked why the did not spend even a portion of the money collected as toll for repairing them.

A bench of Justices and

made the observation while hearing a bunch of public interest litigations (PILs) highlighting the poor condition of some arterial roads in and around the city.

"It is unfortunate that the situation of roads and highways in and around has not improved least the last 25 years. State authorities collect a handsome amount as toll for use of some roads and expressways.

"Why dont you (the state) use some of that money to repair the potholes and maintain the roads?" the bench said.

In April this year, while hearing one of these pleas, another bench of the HC had held that a citizen had a fundamental right to have good roads and footpaths.

At that time, the court had directed the (BMC) and other state agencies to maintain roads and footpaths in a good condition and repair potholes promptly.

It had also directed the agencies to set up a grievance redressal mechanism to tackle complaints about potholes and bad roads.

The bench led by Justice More has now directed the BMC and the state to submit a compilation of all the pleas on the issue of potholes and bad roads that are currently pending hearing in the HC.

It has also asked the authorities to inform the court of the steps taken to comply with its previous orders in each of these pleas.

The bench is likely to hear all the pleas together next week.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Tue, September 25 2018. 20:40 IST