Now, Ganpati mandals plan to fill potholes

With Ganpati immersion days approaching, worried mandals have now taken it upon themselves to find a solution to the city's pothole menace. Kunal Purohit reports.

With Ganpati immersion days approaching, worried mandals have now taken it upon themselves to find a solution to the city's pothole menace. They are exploring the possibility of covering the potholes on all immersion routes a few hours before the processions begin.

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“We are conducting daily surveys on major immersion routes and most roads are in a horrible state. Our volunteers will be forced to fill potholes using debris or rocks and then cover it with iron sheets to ensure that our idol trolleys pass over the potholes smoothly,” said Girish Walawalkar, secretary, Brihan-mumbai Sarvajanik Ganesh-otsav Samanvay Samiti, umbrella body of all sarvajanik Ganpati mandals in the city.

The civic body, which has missed three deadlines to repair the city’s roads, is also scampering to get all potholes filled before the immersions begin.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is planning to use ‘Wonderpatch’, a cold mix developed by Wonder Technologies, for filling potholes on immersions routes, albeit temporarily. It is one of the technologies the civic body had decided to test.

Gupta, however, said the payment model is yet to be worked out. “Our first priority is to get the roads repaired. After which we will start working on the payment model for the technology, and the warranty period that their work should entail,” said Gupta

The BMC has always used hot-mix to fill potholes, a method, which has come in for a lot of criticism. About two weeks ago, even the standing technical advisory committee (STAC) had told the BMC to start using cold mix to fill potholes from next year onwards.