Give a roadmap for repairing potholed roads: HC to civic chief

The Bombay high court has sought audience from BMC commissioner Iqbal Chahal regarding the issue of potholes in the city

Mumbai The Bombay high court has sought audience from BMC commissioner Iqbal Chahal regarding the issue of potholes in the city.

The HC has asked Chahal to identify the 20 worst roads in the city and give a roadmap for redressal, posting the hearing for next week (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT PHOTO)

The HC while hearing a contempt petition by advocate Ruju Thakker was informed that though each ward was given ₹2 crore per year for filling of potholes and ensuring preventive maintenance, the same was not being utilized because of which the problem persisted. The court was also informed that BMC’s compliance report on the issue was not conclusive.

The HC has asked Chahal to identify the 20 worst roads in the city and give a roadmap for redressal, posting the hearing for next week.

The division bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice Madhav Jamdar, while hearing the contempt petition by Thakker, was informed that potholes kept on coming up on Mumbai’s roads and highways. She pointed to a news report which showed that a flyover on the Santacruz-Chembur Link Road had developed a huge crater. Thakker submitted that there were 21,000 potholes, which the citizens were unable to report as they did not know how to do so.

After hearing Thakker, the bench said that it did not want to send anyone to prison but wanted to know when the pothole problem would be resolved. “When I came to Mumbai in 2020, I saw that the roads in Mumbai were much better than those in Calcutta. However, the condition of the Narayan Dabholkar Road (residence of CJ and other state dignitaries) is no different. I also feel like any other citizen but I am not saying that a road next to my house needs to be repaired,” said CJ Datta.

The CJ further sought to know when Chahal would be able to appear, as he did during the Covid pandemic. “Monsoon is receding now you cannot make that excuse. Find out which are the worst 20 roads in Mumbai which require extensive repairs,” said the CJ referring to the roadmap.

Senior advocate Anil Sakhare for the BMC submitted that there was around 2000 kms of road under the civic body’s jurisdiction and that efforts were on to concretise all the roads. He further added that on September 19, the corporation had filled up 33,000 potholes and various initiatives were being taken to address the problem.

The CJ also asked the secretary of PWD to identify 20 worst roads and said that both the civic chief and the PWD secretary should be present before the court on the same day as resolving the pothole issue had to be done in a phased manner. The bench then posted hearing of the petition to Thursday or Friday next week.