Bombay high court asks Centre, Maharashtra govt to address issue of potholes on highways

In the PIL about the Mumbai-Goa highway, the bench on September 20, had asked the state government to consider a state-wide policy to deal with the issue of potholes on public roads and highways to safeguard the lives of citizens

Observing that a distance that was traversed in 15 minutes on the Mumbai-Nashik highway was now taking two hours due to the potholes that had come up there, the Bombay high court (HC) has asked the Centre and the state government to take cognisance of the potholes on the said highway and other highways and initiate coordinated efforts to ensure that commuters do not lose lives due to the menace.

Bombay high court (HC) has asked the Centre and Maharashtra government to take cognisance of the potholes on the said highway and other highways and initiate coordinated efforts to ensure that commuters do not lose lives.

A division bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice Girish Kulkarni, which has been hearing a public interest litigation complaining of potholes on the Mumbai-Goa highway, while referring to news reports (has not referred to a news report of any particular media organisation) that highlighted the pathetic state of the highway said, “A distance that can normally be covered in a period of 15 minutes now takes at least two hours all because of the potholes.” The bench sought to know from the advocate general (AG) as to why such a situation had arisen and no action was taken to address the pothole issue.

According to the September 23 report of the Hindustan Times, ‘Commuters had to endure a nightmarish commute on both Tuesday and Wednesday as 15km-long serpentine queues of vehicles were witnessed on the Mumbai-Nashik Highway. The traffic snarls spilled over to Ghodbunder Road, Waghbil, Kalwa, Majiwada and other areas in Thane city.’ The report also cites Vinay Rathod, DCP (traffic), Thane, explaining the reason for the traffic snarls, “The poor condition of roads and the heavy rains that damaged the temporary filling of potholes led to a slow pace of traffic. We have approached the local authorities and asked them to do the needful.”

In the PIL about the Mumbai-Goa highway, the bench on September 20, had asked the state government to consider a state-wide policy to deal with the issue of potholes on public roads and highways to safeguard the lives of citizens.

The bench had warned the concerned authorities and contractors especially the state government that it would not allow the Konkan coastal road project which would pass through three districts if the road widening and pothole issue of the Mumbai-Goa which had commenced in 2010 is not completed in a time-bound manner.

AG Ashutosh Kumbhakoni informed the bench that the Mumbai-Nashik highway was under various authorities of the central government and the state government was only the overseeing authority. However, the bench observed that these issues had to be sorted out between the authorities and all agencies needed to come together and co-ordinate on addressing the pothole issue. The bench then asked the governments to respond on the issue on October 4.