The BMC’s tall promises of making the roads pothole-free before Ganeshotsav have proved hollow, with over 3,000 potholes still dotting Mumbai’s roads. The BMC had set Saturday as the deadline to complete pothole repairs.
According to the data available with the civic body, there are as many as 3,014 potholes on the roads. Of these, the number of potholes on roads belonging to other agencies like MMRDA, MSRDC, PWD are around 800. Roads in areas like Grant Road, Dadar, Bhandup, Santa Cruz, Vile Parle, Andheri, Jogeshwari and Malad have the maximum number of potholes.
The officials of the Brihanmumbai Sarva-janik Ganeshotsav Sama-nvay Samiti (BSGSS), an umbrella organisation of Ganpati mandals in the city, expressed disappointment over the BMC’s failure to repair potholes before the festival.
BSGSS president Narendra Dahibavkar said, “We even held talks with the chief minister and requested him to ensure pothole-free roads during Ganeshotsav, but there is no improvement in the situation yet. Civic officials have also failed to supervise the pothole-filling work properly. We hope that at least before the immersion, the roads in the city are pothole-free.”
In order to meet the
deadline, the civic body has asked all its engineers to work for the entire week. Their weekly offs were also cancelled.
The contractors were asked to work at night and complete the backlog. However, despite all the efforts, the BMC failed to fill all potholes.
When contacted, a civic official said, “We still have a couple of days for Ganeshotsav. We will
try and repair maximum number of potholes,
so that devotees are not inconvenienced,” said a senior civic official.