With no response from BMC, locals come together to fix potholes in Bandra

Mumbai: It took ₹4,000 and 2

Mumbai: It took ₹4,000 and 2.5 hours for residents and activists to fill 16 potholes on the Hill Road junction in Bandra west on Sunday. While it is deemed “illegal” by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for residents to fill potholes by themselves, desperate times called for desperate measures as commuters’ say their complaints to the civic body fell on deaf ears.

The volunteers underwent short training from road engineers and managed to fill 16 potholes on Hill Road junction between 10 am to 12.30 pm on Sunday.

Residents tied-up with NGO Ample Missiion to fill up potholes on their own with cold mix bitumen. Bandra-Khar and Santacruz H (west) wards have the maximum number of potholes (188) this year, according to the NGO’s report.

Notably. the former H west ward office and the Bandra police station are in close proximity to Hill Road junction, where residents filled the potholes on Sunday.

Deva Prasad, a member of Ample Missiion Foundation, told HT that cold mix bitumen was bought from a trader for ₹400 per bag. They bought 10 bags and spent ₹4,000 on 16 potholes.

“Local groups informed us of killer potholes so we reached the spot to fill them. We used our own money to buy the cold mix from different traders,” said Prasad.

The volunteers underwent short training from road engineers and managed to fill 16 potholes on Hill Road junction between 10 am to 12.30 pm on Sunday.

Explaining the process, Prasad said, “We first pack it with rubble and then put cold mix bitumen. To ensure that moving cars do not disturb the freshly fixed pothole, our volunteers divert the traffic for 10 minutes.”

“Many residents who find us on social media, approach us after not getting any response from the BMC. We go to a location only after residents invite us,” he added

Ashish Pingale, a resident of Hill Road said the road he uses to commute daily is riddled with potholes. “The road opposite Bandra police station is uneven. One has to take the two-wheeler in a zig-zag manner with sharp turns to avoid potholes,” he said.

Local resident Mushtaq Ansari gathered people from Dharavi, Andheri and Mahim, and roped in the NGO that funded the cold bitumen mix. “The traffic cop said we should complain to authorities. It has been done and still, there is no relief. Traffic crawls on this road as two-wheelers keep braking. They filled only a few spots on Bandra,” said Ansari.

When contacted, an official from the BMC H west said he was not aware of the pothole filling exercise by residents. “I will look into this matter,” he said.

The civic body floated five tenders worth ₹25 crore -- one for the city, one for the eastern suburbs and three for the western suburbs -- and finalised two methods to fill craters last Friday. The rapid hardening concrete, used for the construction of dams, costs more than ₹23,000 per cubic metre, with a curing period of six hours. The geo polymer solution, which takes two hours to dry, costs around ₹5,000 per square metre.

The civic body decided to adopt the two new techniques to fill up potholes after a week-long pilot project on Anik-Wadala Road.