Mumbai civic chief warns of action over potholes

MUMBAI: The increasing number of potholes on Mumbai’s roads and the growing public outcry against the craters on social media have irked municipal commissioner Praveen Pardeshi. In a strongly-worded message to all BMC officials on Friday, Pardeshi said that if complaints are not addressed, action would have to be taken against the chief engineer of the roads department in order to establish the rule that the buck stops at the top.

A list put together by the BMC, which has been circulated among officials, lists 325 pothole-related complaints received on Twitter which have not been attended.Of these 325, the highest number of complaints are from two wards, K East (51) and K West (31), which include parts of Andheri, Vile Parle, Jogeshwari, Juhu and Oshiwara.

In some cases, Twitter users have written about how this is a fourth reminder and about how potholes could be life-threatening if not repaired. Others have written about massive traffic jams being caused due to potholes, especially on the stretch between Juhu and Linking Road, Veera Desai Road, Jogeshwari flyover, Four Bungalows and Yari Road.
There have been several complaints from the eastern suburbs as well. For instance, there have been 39 complaints from S ward which includes parts of Bhandup and 22 from L ward, which includes Kurla. “Heavy traffic on JVLR bcoz of potholes near L&T flyover. Potholes free roads kab milega???,” reads one of the tweets from @imVkohlee. Another tweet from the handle TheLazyAthlete @Parth_Shahh says, “You need trekking shoes to walk around in #Mumbai Potholes, Uneven Roads, Hawkers! You name and you get it! #MaximumCity.”
Pardeshi said in his message, “I don’t see any response on the (BMC’s) Twitter handle, and pothole complaints are piling up. In all fairness, I have to take action against the chief engineer roads... MCGM team will hear of action taken as we are going to establish the rule that the buck stops at the top and we will not make a scapegoat of the Dy CE (deputy chief engineer).”
The NCP, which has started the campaign #khaddekaadda on social media asking Twitterati to use the hashtag while posting complaints pertaining to potholes, said in most cases, responses on Twitter to pothole-related complaints are automated.
NCP’s Clyde Crasto said he had recently tweeted about a pothole at Bhuleshwar, and the BMC took several hours to reply. “Forget about attending to my complaint, even the reply came only after I had sent a reminder. What is the point if they take hours to address a complaint which is serious in nature? Besides, many times I feel the responses are automated and action is not taken on the ground,” he said.
Ravi Raja, opposition party leader in BMC, said engineers on the ground responsible for attending to complaints are not Twitter-savvy.
It is odd that the BMC commissioner, who has only recently taken over, has to send out messages to officials about essential civic works. So much apathy towards complaints posted on social media reflects the deeper malaise of indifference among civic officials.
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