City had witnessed 27 deaths in 2019 and 35 in 2018 due to accidents caused by potholes
@hepzia
Mumbai: The Covid-19 imposed lockdown has turned to be a blessing in disguise for citizens using the Mumbai roads this year. Thanks to the lockdown, the city has registered zero deaths due to pothole related accidents, a perennial monsoon tragedy that plays out every year on Mumbai roads.
“As on 2018, there were 35 casualties due to potholes, while 2019 saw about 27 deaths due to pothole-related accidents. The good news is that so far we have not yet registered a single death this year because of potholes,” says Mushtaq Ansari, founder of Pothole Warriors, a Mumbai-based citizen’s action group.
Though the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) claimed that the city had registered only about 500-odd potholes this year, Pothole Warriors says that the city could have seen over 3000 potholes on the 2000 Kms stretch of city roads. Ansari, founder of the twitter handle by the same name, counted about 25 potholes himself between Bandra and Andheri on the S.V. Road stretch as on August 23 itself.
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He says that they had already logged complaints of over 100 potholes this monsoon. This figure of potholes though is much lesser compared to previous years.
He says that though the BMC does its bit to redress the issue of potholes, the measures taken are inadequate as the potholes tend to re-emerge at the same spot soon thereafter. “Even after the potholes are filled up with coldmix, they reappear at the same places as proper procedures are not followed. Workers are supposed to clear the potholes, remove out water, hammer out the loose parts and then put in the coldmix to ensure long lasting impact. However, at most places, workers tend to just fill in the coldmix randomly nullifying the impact,” says Ansari.
Chief engineer (roads and traffic) Sanjay Darade said: “Our roads are much better this year due to proactive measures undertaken prior to the onset of the monsoons. Most of the potholes complaints in the BMC jurisdiction are being attended to promptly.”
Ansari says that the only long lasting solution is concretization of roads. He urged people to click pics of potholes and complain on twitter or on 1916 to ensure action. Last year, the BMC offered incentives of Rs 500 to citizens who complained about potholes. The famous radio jockey Malishka had famously brought out a song to highlight the problem of Mumbai potholes and even compared it to craters on the moon.
