Potholes: BMC alone not to blame

Chief Engineer Road Department,G M Agarwal said,“We have been regularly updating and sending details of all potholed roads to these agencies. The roads that fall under the defect liability period of respective agencies is their responsibility.”

While the civic administration usually sets a one-day deadline for pothole repair after it assigns a pothole to the contractor,it cannot assign repair of potholes on roads not under its jurisdiction. A senior BMC official said,“The civic administration faces a lot of flak for not repairing potholes,but roads and flyovers handled by other central and state agencies are also in bad shape.”

Of the non-BMC agencies,the highest number of potholes was on roads managed by MMRDA. Potholes have been reported in areas such as Andheri West’s International Airport Project Road,Chembur’s R C Marg,Parel’s Jejabai Wadia Road,Nana Phadnis Bridge in Wadala,Western Express Highway,parts of LBS Road and Andheri West J P Road among other spots. When contacted,MMRDA spokesperson,Dilip Kawathkar said,“Most of our roads have been handed over to the civic administration. All roads under our maintenance are repaired regularly. It is our priority to undertake pothole repair so that commuters do not face hardship.”

Other roads such as Jogheswari Vikhroli Link Road handled by MSRDC have also reported numerous potholes. Some private layout roads that have unattended potholes include Gokul Tower Road in Thakur Village Kandivali,Veera Desai Road Jogeshwari West,RCF Marg Chembur and Sai Road in Gokuldham at Goregaon east. So far,over 10,065 potholes have been reported in the city since November,of which 1,740 are yet to be repaired.