Mumbai: BMC hasn't assigned potholes for a month, contractors say

The contractors said on Tuesday that the BMC was responsible for the city’s poor roads, claiming it had been a month since the civic body had assigned them potholes to repair.

Six contractors hired by the BMC to fix the city’s potholes have hit back at the civic body a day after they were fined Rs 39 lakh for using substandard materials to fix potholes across 24 wards in June. The contractors said on Tuesday that the BMC was responsible for the city’s poor roads, claiming it had been a month since the civic body had assigned them potholes to repair.

One contractor, who did not wish to be named, said, “In many wards BMC engineers have failed to assign potholes to be filled in the past month. This is one of the many reasons why some wards have a large number of unattended potholes.”

According to the BMC’s pothole tracking website (www.voiceofcitizen.com), there are 3,088 potholes in roads under the civic body’s jurisdiction, of which 2,982 have been assigned to contractors. The website also claims there are only 314 potholes across the city yet to be fixed.

After a complaint about potholes is registered on the online portal, the potholes are assigned to the contractor of that zone by road engineers at the ward level. After the potholes are filled, the same engineers check the quality of the work and approve it.

The Rs 39 lakh fine imposed on the contractors on Monday was their second in as many months. Following a report from the vigilance department, the BMC had fined the same contractors Rs 5 lakh each in July for using poor quality materials to fix potholes.

Refuting the civic body’s claim that they were using substandard materials, one of the six contractors said, “After the initial report we had also conducted checks to improve the quality of materials used. The problem was resolved.”

This year, the civic body has budgeted Rs 14 crore to fix potholes – Rs 2 crore for each of the city’s seven zones.