Safety in the pits as commuters suffer on rain-battered roads in Bhopal

BHOPAL: If there is one vivid example of excessive rainfall in Bhopal during August, it's the rain-battered roads of the city. Series of potholes on roads is not limited to a particular area, but spread across the entire city. Following rains, water-filled potholes are posing a threat to commuters and when it's dry the dust flying from roads make their life miserable.
TOI visited four prominent stretches of roads and found their conditions pathetic following rains this month.
A reader Varinder Singh called TOI office seeking to highlight the poor condition of a road between Pul Bogda and Subhash Nagar crossing. "The road with heavy traffic is in such a bad condition that if you take your eyes away even for a minute, you may land up in a crater. The road is particularly risky for scooterists. Towards Ashoka Garden, right in front of a hotel, there is a big hole, which could take somebody's life," he said.
The roads in front of Bittan Market, which usually is in good condition, has also developed potholes.
"I have been coming to Bittan Market for years, but never before I saw the road in front of market in such a bad condition and it has happened in just 15 days or so. On market days, there is so much of crowd on the road, it's really risky commuting even if you are in a car," said Prabha Sharma, a resident of Chuna Bhatti.
The road connecting Habibganj Station to Arera Colony remains perennially scarred.
The stretch between Mata Mandir and Platinum Plaza is another important road where the situation has only worsened ever since works under smart city project started there.
These are the only important stretch of roads in bad condition. Everywhere be it Shahpura, Trilanga, Koh-e-Fiza, VIP Road, Jawahar Chowk to Ratibad or MP Nagar zone II, the roads all are lying in shambles with little hope of repairing before the end of the rainy season.
Superintendent engineer, Capital Project Administration (CPA), Jawahar Singh said that the CPA has control over only 80 km of road in the city and the roads which CPA maintains are in good condition. Only a few stretches are in bad condition and we are facing it, he said. Of the four stretches covered by TOI, he said none of it is under CPA's supervision.
Public Works Department (PWD) Superintendent Engineer VK Aarak also claimed that roads maintained by the PWD are the best in the city. "The PWD has control over 376 km roads in the city. The stretch between Judicial Academy and Ratibad is the only road, which is not up to the mark and we are working on it. We regularly check the conditions of our roads and if we find bad roads, the PWD work to maintain it as soon as possible," he said.
BMC in-charge of roads, P K Jain, when contacted to talk about condition of roads under BMC control, said "I am busy in a meeting. I would talk to you later." However, he didn't pick up the phone later on.