The heavy rains in the month of July has increased the potholes menace in the city, especially in the western suburbs. According to the BMC data, 16,000 potholes were reported till July 21. Of these, 8,000 potholes were reported in just 18 days. The highest number of potholes were reported from Malad, Jogeshwari and Andheri. In the last one month, 15,000 potholes have been filled, said the BMC official.
On Wednesday, a couple was apparently killed due to bad roads on the stretch of the Western Express Highway (WEH) in Borivali. The maintenance of the said stretch is with the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC). But, the most to suffer from bad roads are western suburbs as almost 48 per cent of potholes complaints, received by the BMC this monsoon, were from there. The highest number of potholes-1,709-were reported in Malad followed by Andheri West (1,667), and Jogeshwari and Andheri East (1,591).
Activist Godfrey Pimenta said, “It's the BMC's duty to find the potholes and attend to it within 48 hours. The civic body has even assured of the same. But, in Andheri, we see potholes everywhere.” Another activist from Malad, Vinod Gholap, said, “This year, the roads are even more in bad condition. Civic team repairs only those potholes against which they have received complaints.”
The city has a road network of 2,050 km; around 1,050 km of it has been concretised. In the current fiscal, the BMC has undertaken concretisation work of 236.58 km of roads while the other 423 km will be cemented next year.
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