Potholes in your area? Talk directly to BMC’s engineers

With the onset of monsoon, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday issued WhatsApp mobile numbers of civic engineers, for citizens to complain about

With the onset of monsoon, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday issued WhatsApp mobile numbers of civic engineers, for citizens to complain about the potholes problem during the monsoon.

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In a public notice issued on Monday, the BMC said, “The BMC has provided the facility on MCGM 24x7 app to enable citizens of Mumbai to register complaints about potholes on the roads. This app can be downloaded from Play Store. Apart from this, citizens can also register complaints on toll-free number 1800221293 and on WhatsApp directly.”

A BMC official said, “We have issued WhatsApp numbers for all the 24 wards for citizens to complain, and we plan to attend all the complaints between 24 to 48 hours. This year, road repair work in several areas was impacted due to the outbreak of novel coronavirus. We have stopped work in the area around containment zones.”

Last year, the BMC had announced a pothole challenge, announcing cash prize for citizens over reporting of potholes. The challenge invited people to click pictures of potholes or take selfies with them and upload the images via Fixit app. The images were automatically geo-tagged in the app.

According to terms and conditions set by the BMC, a person can report two potholes and he or she will get an award up to ₹500. However, the catch is that the person got the money only if the BMC failed to repair the pothole within 24 hours.