As life in the waterlogging areas of the city is restoring slowly, the Mumbai rains has left its mark on the city roads. Traffic has started crawling on many roads, especially Western Express Highway and Link Road, due to potholes.
Dr Saida Khan, corporator from Kurla informed, "The New Mill Road in Kurla has potholes that is affecting the vehicular traffic. There are potholes on other roads too. But flooding-related issues are my priority now." Rajul Patel, corporator from Jogeshwari West added, "There are potholes on the Versova-Charkop link road where the metro work is going on. The road is not with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) but the citizens blame the civic body." According to Asif Zakaria, corporator from Bandra, as compared to the last year, the potholes on Bandra roads are comparatively less so far. However, it is just the beginning of monsoon.
Even the express highways are not free from the woe of potholes. Godfrey Pimenta, an activist told DNA, "Western Express Highway's traffic is already crawling due to the metro work, and the potholes near Kala Nagar are multiplying the issue. There was a serpentine queue seen from Bandra to Andheri section."
"Although the BMC doesn't have a data of the number of potholes in the city as of now, we already have given instructions to fill the potholes at the earliest with cold mix," clarified Vijay Singhal, Additional Commissioner of the BMC.
A senior officer from the civic body added, "The BMC has produced around 1,450 metric tonne (MT) of cold mix, and has already distributed 1.200 metric tonne to the 24 wards in the city."
"There is an additional demand from some wards but the mixture will distribute only after they submit a report on the use of earlier packets," he informed.
Reviving pothole tracker app
The BMC will be reintroducing the pothole tracker app within a week, where citizens can register complains about road problems by uploading potholes photos. Therein, the concerned ward has to fill the pothole within 48 hours.
