On a road to somewhere

Just when the Mumbaikar was getting used to living with— and occasionally dying because of—potholes on the streets, hope comes in the shape of a Bombay High Court order, directing the authorities to fill up all of them by August 30. Following a clutch of public interest litigations (PILs), the Court stepped in where the executive had not deigned to go, so it looks like there will be some relief for the hapless citizen. No harm hoping, at least.

So will the authorities get their act together? The problem is, first the “authorities” have to be identified. A number of agencies are responsible for various stretches of roads and flyovers in the city: the Bombay Municipal Corporation, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), Bombay Port Trust, to say nothing of the Thane Municipal Corporation. Then there are the 16 utilities, including MTNL, Mahanagar Gas, and Reliance Energy, which regularly dig up the roads. All these have to be coordinated to ensure a time table for digging.

Then there are the craters that form on the roads during every monsoon, and now, frequently, even when there are no rains. After last year’s deluge, the roads were left in a terrible condition. It took months of repairs to get them back into some kind of decent shape. Now, as every Mumbaikar knows, and feels, while driving on them, they are back to looking the same as they were a year ago.

The Court has rightly understood why this happens: a nexus between corrupt contractors and officials is at the heart of the problem. The accountability system simply does not exist and the fines imposed on contractors are a joke. Keeping this in mind, the Court dismissed as “token punishment” the Rs5.40 lakh collected as penalties for bad road conditions from 33 private contractors recently, given that the BMC spent Rs250 crore on road repairs in June alone.

Will we soon get roads worthy of a modern metropolis, a wannabe Shanghai? The time certainly is short, and the work monumental. The BMC’s record in these matters is not very encouraging. Besides, the rains, too, are not going to help.

But if the judicial intervention gets the process started, sooner or later we will get the roads we deserve. When that happens, every Mumbaikar will bless the courts every day.