Scanty rainfall, but no shortfall in potholes

Despite receiving the lowest rainfall in July in the past decade, July’s tally of potholes is more than double the number reported in June, which means that the state of the roads is rapidly deteriorating.

Despite receiving the lowest rainfall in July in the past decade, July’s tally of potholes is more than double the number reported in June, which means that the state of the roads is rapidly deteriorating.

HT Image

In its July 4 edition, HT had reported that 2,224 potholes were detected in June. On July 1, the pothole count stood at 3,307.

However, the city’s roads recorded a whopping 7,463 potholes in July, and the total number of potholes has touched 10,770.

Mumbai got just 614.5mm of rainfall In July, which is less than half the rainfall received in July 2011 (1,312.9mm).

Professor SL Dhingra, institute chair professor, department of civil engineering, IIT Bombay, said the reason potholes are forming despite scanty rainfall could be because of technical faults in the roads.

“Most roads and their shoulder strips don’t have the right amount of slope that is required to ensure that water does not remain on the road surface and instead slides to the drain alongside the road,” he said.

Dhingra suspects that the use of low-quality materials while making roads could also be a factor.