MUMBAI: Seven people have died in Thane district during the last two months as a result of pothole-ridden roads, according to information provided to the Bombay High Court.
The information was provided to the court by Ruju Thakkar, an advocate speaking on behalf of the website ichangemycity.com, which works on municipal issues in several Indian cities. A contempt petition regarding the terrible condition of pothole-filled roads in Mumbai and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) was being heard by a division bench consisting of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice M.S. Karnik.
Iqbal Chahal, Commissioner, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) was delivering a presentation on the city’s road improvement plan as directed by the court. There are technical explanations for why potholes appear, he said. Heavy rains and water seeping through the porous material used in roads generate potholes. Continuous movement of high density traffic makes it difficult for repairs to be done. He claimed that WhatsApp might be used to raise public awareness of potholes.
Chahal claimed that 20 of the worst roads will be fixed in three months’ time and that bids for their concretization had already been floated. He urged the Urban Development Department to hand over finished roads and bridges to BMC with advertisement rights. He added that, whereas every city in the world has just one planning authority, we have eight, which causes a number of problems. For this reason, he had written to the government earlier to make BMC the sole authority for road reparation. The Bench then requested that the government’s attorney take this aspect into account. The court ordered all parties to file a report every two months and stated that it will monitor the issue.