Potholes come undone due to hasty, shoddy repair; citizens complain

PUNE Given the heavy rain and with work on the water drainage system incomplete in some places and shoddily carried out in others, many a pothole has sprung up across the city with hastily covered ones opening up again

PUNE Given the heavy rain and with work on the water drainage system incomplete in some places and shoddily carried out in others, many a pothole has sprung up across the city with hastily covered ones opening up again.

HT Image

Several such hurriedly concealed holes have come undone in most of the peth areas, creating craters with a thick pile of sticky mud acting as road bumps which mislead riders bang into the water-logged cavities. Taking a round of the city, especially the parts where the roads department has carried out shoddy work, we came across many traffic snarls as riders and drivers tried to navigate these potholes and bumps. While areas such as Kothrud, Baner, Balewadi and Bavdhan in the west; Camp; and parts of Kalyani Nagar and Koregaon Park prove to be a smooth ride for residents, the trouble begins with the Lakdi Pul where as soon as the bridge ends in Alka Talkies chowk, motorists find themselves swinging up and down as they navigate a bump and a pothole.

Parth Sidhaye, who broke his wrist during the first spell of rain after skidding near Tilak Road where workers had covered their works in a haphazard manner leaving mounds of mud, said, “These blind potholes filled with water are the most dangerous and if we brake hard on the scooter, we might skid and fall.”

The peths are the most problematic areas with riders and motorists having to navigate bumps every 10 minutes while speeds are dropped as the drivers approach the turn from Shaniwar Wada. At Belbaug Chowk and Mandai where the metro work is underway, the hurdles get multiplied with incomplete works along the drainage lines resulting in half-open craters with mud flung on them. The stretch between Guruwar Peth and Timber Market also offers a bumpy ride. Abhijeet Sangle, a mechanic from Guruwar Peth, said, “We find many two-wheeler riders getting their wheels stuck in the mud near the potholes and help them out. The work on the drainage line began last year and with people now beginning to travel and go about their work, the holes have been shoddily covered with mud.”

Other roads conspicuous by their abundance of potholes and the consequent inconvenience caused to motorists and riders are Gadital in Hadapsar and the Mundhwa Undri Road.

V G Kulkarni, head of the roads department, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), acknowledged the presence of potholes and bumps and said, “It is true that in many of the peth areas, people are finding it hard to travel as the 24/7 water drainage lines’ work is still not complete in places and wherever it has been completed, it seems the work has not been done properly. I assure you that there will be smooth roads for traffic within next week, where we will remove or flatten the bumps and potholes.” He also said that wherever the MSEDCL and MNGL has carried out work, there is no problem as roads are well maintained along the outskirts of the main city.