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Potholes emerge in Thane within two weeks of monsoon, citizens irked
Vaibhav Jadhav, a Waghbil resident and a hardware professional commutes to Ghansoli, Navi Mumbai, daily on a two-wheeler. “The chief minister is taking initiative, but like every year, potholes have resurfaced just after the first heavy showers, exposing all his claims. There are potholes in Waghbil on internal roads also,” he added
Mumbai: While chief minister Eknath Shinde has been working hard to ensure that his constituency, Thane, gets the best amenities and pothole-free roads, the residents of the area have raised questions on the quality of work after potholes resurfaced in some key roads barely after the first heavy showers from June last week.
Vaibhav Jadhav, a Waghbil resident and a hardware professional commutes to Ghansoli, Navi Mumbai, daily on a two-wheeler. “The chief minister is taking initiative, but like every year, potholes have resurfaced just after the first heavy showers, exposing all his claims. There are potholes in Waghbil on internal roads also,” he added.
Usually, one contractor takes the tender and a third party does the actual work, an irritated Jadhav pointed out and said that repairs have been done in patches on flyovers.
“There is no levelling. Rains won’t affect patches, but the uneven levelling makes it a bumpy ride anyway, and it is very risky for two-wheelers. How is an engineer allowing this?” he said.
Soon after taking over as the CM, Shinde launched the “Changing Thane” initiative and directed the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) to undertake beautification work as well as repairs and concretisation. 282 roads were taken up for a total cost of ₹605 crore, including 127 road works in the first package costing ₹214 crore and 155 roads in the second package costing ₹391 crore.
He pointed out that the tender conditions include a clause that a penalty of ₹1 lakh will be levied per pothole on new roads. TMC also roped in IIT-Powai experts to carry out a third-party audit of the road works.
On May 22, CM Shinde visited Thane to supervise the desilting of nullahs as well as personally supervise the road works.
“The pothole-prone spots have been identified and are being resurfaced using YTWT and mastic asphalt techniques. This year during monsoon, Thane citizens will surely get pothole-free roads,” Shinde said then and directed officials to suspend contractors if poor quality work is found.
Rahul Pingle, an activist, who works with the Thane Congress unit said that the deadline for completing road works had to be extended twice.
“The desilting of nullahs has not been done properly. Potholes are coming back. I may be representing an opposition political party, but I am speaking here as a tax-paying citizen,” he said, adding that a video has surfaced where a mixer is pouring cement mix in a gutter filled with water, and a shopkeeper is objecting to how this is being allowed in the CM’s constituency.
Meanwhile, TMC commissioner Abhijit Bangar has been working hard to implement CM Shinde’s vision and ensure that citizens get pothole-free roads despite a multiplicity of responsibilities between other agencies like the Public Works Department (PWD), Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).
“Yes, potholes have resurfaced on some roads, and we are monitoring every major pothole,” Bangar said. “The potholes have surfaced on Majiwada flyover which is maintained by PWD, but TMC has taken the responsibility of filling potholes. We are filling new potholes every two days on that flyover.”
He added that the Nitin Company flyover is with MSRDC, but TMC is filling potholes due to the urgency.
Bangar said that heavy rainfall started after June 24 and the TMC had to stop the road works. “We have completed 90% of the road works, and ensured that all ongoing work was completed by July 1, and wherever it is not completed, we have brought the road to motorable condition with no potholes.”
