Repair of potholes in Kalyan, Dombivli halted due to sudden rain

The road repair and potholes filling work undertaken on some of the major roads in Kalyan and Dombivli earlier this week has come to a standstill on Thursday due to the unexpected downpour

The road repair works undertaken on some of the major roads in Kalyan and Dombivli earlier this week came to a standstill on Thursday due to the unexpected downpour. Most of the roads in the twin cities still had huge craters, making it difficult for the commuters.

A road repair work on Pune Link Road in Kalyan (E) being carried out before the rain interruption. Sudden downpour stopped the filling work of potholes in Kalyan and Dombivli. (RISHIKESH CHOUDHARY/HT PHOTO)

However, following the report in Hindustan Times, the Public Works Department (PWD), has done the patch work at the Gandhare Kalyan (W)-Padgha Link Road earlier this week. This road was in a bad shape till last week with huge potholes.

A PWD officer said, “A pothole-filling patch work has been carried out at the Gandhare-Padgha Road when there was no rain. Now that it has started raining again, we will have to wait and see if the work done is washed away. The necessary work will be carried out by our staff.”

However, the potholes on the road that connects the Durgadi Bridge and Govindwadi Bypass Road in Kalyan (W) are yet to be repaired.

“We had begun the repair work earlier this week as there was no rain. However, unfortunately it started raining again on Wednesday evening. So, we had to halt the work. Now, since it is expected that the rain will continue this week, we will only start the work once it stops raining,” said Sapna Koli, city engineer, KDMC.

As per the KDMC the actual repair work that includes asphalting of the roads would begin after October 15, once the rain stops, and is expected to be finished in a month.

On Wednesday, the work of the vital Pune Link Road in Kalyan (E) was undertaken by the civic body. However, the work has stopped now due to rain.

“This stretch has both concrete and asphalt portions. The asphalt stretch develops potholes every year. We fail to understand why the civic body is not able to concretise the entire stretch,” said Sagar Munde, a 48-year-old motorist who takes the road to connect to Dombivli for work. This vital link helps one to connect from Kalyan city to Dombivli, Ulhasnagar, Ambernath and Navi Mumbai.

Koli said that owing to lack of funds, the concretisation of such major roads or the re-asphalting could not be undertaken.

“The intensity of rain this time was so high that most of the roads were affected and potholes were developed. We had plans to asphalt the road before Ganeshotsav. However, the rainfall did not slow down and hence the work was not initiated. Our team, however, kept a watch on road conditions and filled the potholes throughout the festival,” said Koli.