Potholes on highways: Maharashtra cabinet discusses issue; CM may direct officials to fill potholes by Oct 15

Last week, the Bombay high court had pulled up the government over potholes on the Mumbai-Nashik highway. The court also directed the Centre and Maharashtra government to address the issue of potholes on highways

As the state faced criticism over pothole-riddled roads and highways, the state cabinet on Tuesday discussed the issue and decided to fill up the potholes in a time-bound manner. Following a discussion during the state cabinet meeting on Tuesday, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray convened a meeting with senior officials on Wednesday evening. Officials said that all agencies will be asked to fill potholes by October 15.

Potholes at Anand Nagar, Ghodbander Road in Thane. The Maharashtra government has been receiving flak for the poor condition of the highways including in Mumbai, Thane, Nagpur, Nashik among other cities (HT Photo)

The state has been receiving flak for the poor condition of the highways including in Mumbai, Thane, Nagpur, Nashik among other cities. Last week, the Bombay high court had pulled up the government over potholes on the Mumbai-Nashik highway. The court also directed the Centre and state governments to address the issue of potholes on highways.

State public works department (PWD) minister Ashok Chavan said, “There has been a lot of rainfall, especially over the past few days, therefore the condition of roads has suffered. The chief minister will chair a meeting tomorrow [Wednesday] on the situation of all highways in the state — both national and state.”

Senior state government officials said that the condition of the roads has been severely damaged due to heavy rainfall over the past few weeks in parts of the state. The official added that directions have been issued to devise a master plan to take immediate action in the case of damage to the highways.

Another cabinet minister said that the issue of multiple agencies handling the maintenance of highways is also an issue. “There are many bodies like National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), PWD, Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation that construct and maintain highways across the state. Possibly poor quality of material coupled with heavy rains has caused potholes. The potholes have to be fixed by mid-October,” he said requesting anonymity.

Ministers also said that the state is also being wrongly blamed for the bad condition of highways that are not under the state government for maintenance, such as the Mumbai-Goa highway, which is handled by NHAI.