Lockdown effect? Number of potholes complaints in Mumbai go down, 239 since June

City has witnessed a 76% drop in the number of potholes during 2020-2021, as compared to 2019-2020, reveals a data based on Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)’s mobile application ‘MyBMC Pothole Fixit

City has witnessed a 76% drop in the number of potholes during 2020-2021, as compared to 2019-2020, reveals a data based on Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)’s mobile application ‘MyBMC Pothole Fixit.’ Further, since June 1, 2021, a total of 239 potholes have been reported in the city, according to the data.

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In the city, the majority of potholes are reported during the monsoon following a heavy downpour. According to the data, between April 1 and July 12, 421 complaints of potholes were reported in the city, of these 239 were reported since June 1. Of the total 421 complaints in the ongoing financial year, 265 complaints have been attended and 255 complaints have been closed.

To proactively report complaints related to potholes in the city, former municipal commissioner Praveen Pardeshi had launched a seven-day pothole challenge. As per the contest, that started on November 1, 2019, the civic body offered a ₹500 cash prize to citizens for reporting potholes. The citizens had to take a selfie with the pothole and report it, and they would be eligible for the cash prize, in case the pothole was not fixed within 24 hours.

According to the data, between April 2020 and March 2021, a drastic fall of 1,292 potholes-related complaints were reported in the city, of which, 885 were attended and 877 were closed.

Shantanu Kulkarni, director of Probity Soft, whose company has developed the BMC mobile application, said, “The complaints have gone down because of the lockdown. The response after the BMC’s pothole challenge in 2019 was good, however, now as local trains services are not permitted for general public and citizens are working from home, the number of complaints have gone down.”

Kulkarni added, “I strongly feel that the BMC like earlier should publicise the usage of their pothole reporting mobile application to get more data on the number of potholes that require to be attended.”

The BMC maintains around 2,055km of roads in the city, and every major and minor road is repaired or resurfaced using asphalt or concrete cement from the existing paver blocks. The roads and traffic department were allocated ₹2,279 crore in the ongoing fiscal of 2020-21, which came down to ₹2,231 crore in 2021-22.

While the budgetary allocation for the road department has remained almost the same in the ongoing fiscal compared to last fiscal, the BMC has reduced its road improvement and repair targets by almost 45% this year. According to estimates presented in the budget on Wednesday, the BMC proposes to improve the road network of 157km in the city and suburbs during 2021-22, which is less than the target of 289 km set in 2020-21.

Meanwhile, corporators have slammed the BMC over the quality of roads in the city, Ravi Raja, Congress corporator and leader of Opposition in the BMC said, “There is no proper mechanism to track potholes and attend to them. Every year during the monsoon, the city has to face the same old civic issues that include potholes and waterlogging after heavy rainfall. Several roads are taken for repair and maintenance but the number of potholes on it shows how poor the quality is.”