Consistent heavy rainfall has dampened BMC’s efforts to repair potholes on Mumbai’s roads. According to officials, since the start of the monsoons, over 8,000 potholes have been reported in the city and the number is only increasing with time.
The rising menace of the pothole-problem can be gauged from the fact that as many as 2,000 potholes were reported on BMC’s pothole-tracking system in the first 10 days of July. Civic officials registered over 6,000 potholes in the month of June.
“The absence of a long dry spell is proving to be a big deterrent in our efforts to fill potholes,” said a senior civic official. “Due to consistent rainfall, the mixture used for repairing potholes is getting washed away. This had led to an increase in potholes,” he explained.
According to the pothole-tracking system, 8,262 potholes have been reported in the city till July 11. The civic officials have claimed to repair around 6,000 of them.
Last monsoon, the civic body had laid a 48-hour deadline to contractors and engineers to fill potholes, failing which a fine of `1,000 was charged on them per day. This year, the civic body has adopted a marking system to assess civic engineers’ performance in pothole-filling. Every time a delay is reported, the engineer will get a minus point; he will be fined `500 if he gets 10 minus points.