While a substantial chunk of public money has been spent on fixing the city’s perennial problem of potholes in the past, the BMC for a change has managed to bring down the expenses this season.
This, the civic body claims is because of the pre-monsoon maintenance work it carried out, and its pothole tracking system, which helped it create a database of areas with most number of potholes.
The BMC had allotted funds of Rs 28 crore to treat potholes this fiscal year (April 2014 to March 2015), a whopping 50 per cent less than what was kept aside last year. Out of the amount, the BMC has spent Rs 25.22 crore in filling potholes till date. Last year, its budget for pothole repairs was Rs 56 crore.
The corporation says the use of the pothole tracking system (www.voiceofcitizen.com), helped it keep count of craters over the past three years. The BMC has been using this system since November 2011,through which civic engineers or residents can upload photographs of potholes in the form of complaints.
“There are two key reasons which helped us curb the number of potholes. One is that we carried out pre-monsoon road maintenance work. The other is that we strengthened the IT wing. The cumulative effect was a reduction in number of potholes and subsequently, expenses,” said civic chief Sitaram Kunte.
However, opposition parties have refused to buy the claim and alleged the BMC is misleading Mumbaikars as far as the drop in number of potholes is concerned.
As reported by dna on July 16, Opposition parties had slammed additional municipal commissioner SVR Srinivas on the floor of the House for allegedly issuing oral orders to road engineers to not report potholes. This, opposition leaders had claimed, was done to show fewer number of potholes. Srinivas, however, had refuted the allegations.
“Besides, as admitted by Srinivas himself, the corporation used hot mix technology (asphalt), when it was supposed to use cold mix during monsoon to fill potholes. People did not see results on the road. They still have to negotiate bad roads. So, this small number game is nothing but a way to fool the public,” alleged Opposition leader Devendra Amberkar.
Area-wise expenditure on potholes:
Island city (Colaba to Mahim, Sion): Rs 4.05 crore
Eastern suburbs (Kurla to Mulund, Kurla to Mankhurd): Rs 7.45 crore
Western suburbs: Rs 13.94 crore
Total expenditure: Rs 25.22 crore
Past budgets:
2013-14: Rs 56 crore
2012-13: Rs 70 crore
2011-12: Rs 80 crore
Sharp drop in potholes numbers:
Potholes reported this year: 14,451
Potholes reported last year: 38,587
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