E-Paper
Adkars alerting citizens about potholes on Pune roads for 2 years
For the past two years, Ajay Adkar, along with his wife and son, have been religiously doing the rounds of city roads at night, identifying dangerous potholes, covering them with white bags, and marking them with cardboard signs to alert pedestrians and commuters
Luckily for Ajay Adkar and his family, there was no major accident when their car bumped over a broken drainage pothole on a city road. Ajay however realised that everyone may not be as lucky and hence, decided to take matters into his own hands. For the past two years, he, along with his wife and son, have been religiously doing the rounds of city roads at night, identifying dangerous potholes, covering them with white bags, and marking them with cardboard signs to alert pedestrians and commuters. So much so that the family has identified and marked for safety 80 such potholes in the past two years, apart from informing the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to repair them.
“Around two years ago, we were travelling by car at night when suddenly one of the tyres was stuck in a broken drainage pothole on the road. Somehow, we managed to get the tyre out of the pothole but I realised how serious the issue was that day and decided to do something about it. First, we covered that particular pothole with a white cement bag and then put a cardboard sign for people to avoid going over it,” said Ajay, 43.
“Then slowly, I started keeping white bags and cardboards with me whenever I was riding my bike or driving my car. Wherever I saw a big pothole or broken drainage, I would immediately cover it with a white bag and put up a cardboard sign. Generally, PMC workers or policemen keep stones around such potholes but people still go over them and meet with accidents. The cardboard sign helps alert people so that they avoid that stretch and go from the side. Wherever possible, we contact the ward office or corporators in that area or lodge an online complaint on the PMC official website so that the pothole can be repaired,” Ajay said.
Ajay’s wife Neena and son Arjun, who is now studying in Class 11, have been accompanying him on his mission. “I am really proud of my father who is doing this noble work without any expectations and just to save the lives of citizens who might face accidents while crossing such dangerous potholes. We often go roaming around different parts of the city at night and whenever we identify such potholes or damaged drainages, we immediately cover them up with bags and put cardboard alert signs,” said Arjun.
With the rainy season having concluded recently, roads in Pune have gotten worse and there are potholes all over the city. Being of low quality, the cement or tar used to construct some of these roads has completely given away, rendering entire stretches extremely dangerous for both pedestrians and commuters. Not very long ago, the Pune traffic police department published a list of 114 dangerous spots across the city that need urgent repairs.
The civic administration is very appreciative of the efforts of the Adkar family. “We regularly get complaints about potholes and bad roads to be repaired from citizens on various platforms but the work done by the Adkar family is excellent and self-motivated. They reach out to the PMC road department or ward office-level officials to raise the pothole repair complaint and every issue that is raised is immediately addressed and the potholes are repaired, said Kishore Jadhav, executive engineer, PMC road department.
