Pune Municipal Corporation flooded with pothole complaints

The hands of the road department staff were full on Thursday. The only sound that could be heard was of the telephone ringing as citizens called up the office to register complaints about potholes in their areas.

Municipal commissioner Mahesh Pathak had on Wednesday announced repairs of any pothole in the city within 24 hours of its being reported.

Additional city engineer Pramod Nirbhavane told DNA that after registering the complaint, the information was immediately conveyed to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) engineer concerned.

The staff attending to the phone number 25501083 recorded 93 complaints on Thursday. However, some citizens complained that their calls were not attended. Most of the calls came from Peth areas.

The civic body has appointed six agencies in the city for road repairs. They provide the manpower, while the PMC supplies material and machinery.

The PMC spent Rs52 lakh and used processed bitumen material of more than 2,300 metric tonnes during its recent pothole repair drive.

Nirbhavane said the potholes were caused due to digging for waterlines, drainage line or leakage of water from underground pipelines.

Complaints were also received about potholes on the Katraj-Kondhwa road. The civic officials said that the stretch, earlier built by the public works department (PWD), has many potholes and needs to be rebuilt from base. The PMC would undertake a project to build a concrete road.

Citizens also called to file complaints about privately owned roads in housing societies.