Mumbai’s Lalbaugcha Raja fined Rs 4.8 lakh for leaving behind 200 potholes

The Lalbaugcha Raja mandal was fined Rs 4.86 lakh for damaging the road while erecting pandal and creating dividers for managing queues of devotees.

Keeping with the annual tradition, this year the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) fined Lalbaugcha Raja Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal for damaging roads and leaving behind more than 200 potholes during the 12-day Ganeshotsav. Last year, the mandal was fined Rs4.5 lakh, which it paid.

1,165 mandals were given permission to erect pandals in Mumbai. (Pratik Chorge/HT Photo)

Vishwas Mote, assistant commissioner, F-south ward, said the mandal was fined Rs 4.86 lakh for damaging the road while erecting pandal and creating dividers for managing beeline queues of devotees.

An official from the F-south ward said, “We have started fixing the potholes instead of waiting for the mandals to pay the fine. Even as we asses the damage done to the roads by pandals, all the roads will be repaired within a week.”

Although civic officials have initiated the process of assessing road damage in all the 24 wards by Ganesh mandals, it will take at least a week for them to complete the inspection. The BMC charges Rs2,000 for every pothole.

Balasaheb Kamble, president, Lalbaugcha Raja Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal, said, “We are yet to receive a BMC notice regarding the fine. We will pay if the roads were damaged because of our pandal. But this year, we took additional precaution and filled all the holes created by us. Its impossible that there are more than 200 potholes because of us. Moreover, our pandal was built on a ground. The queue for Lalbaugcha Raja is the longest, so the BMC assumes that all the potholes in the area were left by us.”