Under fire, civic body promises to fill potholes in Mumbai in next 48 hours

The civic administration has blamed contractors for filling potholes inefficiently.

Flayed over crumbling roads, the BMC on Thursday promised the elected representatives to fill potholes in the next 48 hours.

Potholes near Bombay high court in south Mumbai. (Kunal Patil/HT Photo)

Additional municipal commissioner (AMC) Vijay Singhal made the promise in a general body meeting. Many corporators even offered him a bike ride for a reality check on bad roads.

The civic administration blamed contractors for inefficiently filling potholes. “We will penalise contractors who are not doing their work properly,” said Singhal. According to the civic body, it had received 837 pothole complaints between June 10 and July 10. Of them, 364 complaints had been registered in the last seven days.

In the meeting, several corporators blamed the BMC for the increase in the number of potholes this year. Yogiraj Dabhadkar, BJP councillor from K-West ward, said, “Besides Gokhale bridge collapse, potholes have added to people’s woes. BMC engineers are not following standard procedure.” Congress’ Sufiyan Vanu said, “The BMC has spent Rs15,000 crore in five years on roads; of which, Rs5, 000 crore was spent on cost escalations. We saw up to 300% variations in road tenders.”