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UMC starts repairing roads ahead of Ganesh festival
A day ahead of the Ganesh Chathurthi festival, residents of Ulhasnagar are still complaining about the potholed roads in the city. Locals have raised concerns over the bad roads as repair works this year were delayed due to the lockdown.
Social worker, Prashant Chandanshiv, 33, had written to the commissioner of Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation (UMC) asking him to pay attention to the east-west connecting bridge in Ulhasnagar.
“The bridge had several potholes and my car got damaged due to it. When I wrote to the civic body, they immediately responded and assured they would take action to repair the potholes. There are several such roads that have potholes and needs to be fixed without delay to avoid any accidents,” said Chandanshiv. The potholes on the bridge were repaired on Thursday by UMC.
The roads outside Jawahar Hotel, Golmaidan Road and furniture market road, however, are still in pathetic condition.
Every year the civic body initiates road repair works in March, however, this year work got delayed due to the lockdown. According to UMC, pothole filling work was initiated 10 days back and it is still being undertaken at many places.
“Due to rain we have not initiated the asphalting work as it won’t last. We are just filling the potholes will stones. We are covering all the main routes that will be taken for immersion. Once the rain subsides we will start with asphalting,” said Mahesh Sitlani, engineer, UMC.
This year, the budget for road repair is ₹5 crore, compared to ₹8 crore in 2019.
“This time the work is delayed due to lack of labour and the lockdown. Last year 80% of the road works were completed before monsoon,” added Sitlani.
Although the work has begun, the civic body is not sure when it will be completed due to the constant rains.
Bhiwandi resident protest against potholes
Residents and activists of Kamatghar in Bhiwandi staged a protest against the Bhiwandi-Nizampur City Municipal Corporation (BNCMC) on Wednesday, to highlight the numerous potholes in the area.
The residents stood around potholes with fishing rods to indicate how large and deep the craters were. BNCMC commissioner Pankaj Ashiya said, “Work is already going on. Our team does this on a regular basis. Work is being done even during night for Ganpati festival,” he said.