BMC extends pothole repair deadline for second time

While the BMC had earlier claimed that all pothole repair work will be completed by May 15,this deadline was later extended to May 30.

According to R Ghodke,chief engineer (Roads),“The pothole repair work will take more time as the official proposal was delayed in the standing committee. We hope to plug all potholes by June 8. Also,we will be able to plug potholes during monsoon,whenever there is a dry spell as we are now using the cold mix technology instead of the hot mix.”

A senior official in the road department said,“We are hoping that the cold mix technology will help plug potholes easily even during monsoon in case we are not able to plug all potholes before the deadline”.

As par data,of the 703 potholes which have been detected in November,only 138 have been repaired,53 are undergoing repairs,387 are still be be plugged,and 125 have been assigned to other agencies.

Officials said that the delay was due to the shifting of the responsibility of pothole repair from ward level to the central agency. “We have assigned the detection and repair work of potholes to the central road agency as it is more accountable. Also a team of five officials will be posted at every ward to detect potholes,” Ghodke said.

Although the detection and repair work of the potholes is to be entrusted to the road department,the civic body has left work on contractors,citizens and junior engineers and sub-engineers at ward level. This will be done through the recently launched pothole tracking software by Probity Software which allows all Android phone users to report potholes on the BMC website.

This time,the civic body has made it compulsory for all the 12 pothole repair contractors to form joint ventures with four pre-decided cold mix technology suppliers for the repair work. The BMC will now be using four cold asphalt mix technologies,Wonder Patch,Patchmaker,Road Bond and Carboncor.

Meanwhile,the civic administraton has again hiked the pothole repair budget to Rs 56 crore from the earlier allocated Rs 40 crore. This is the second time that the BMC had to increase the pothole repair budget. Last year,the civic body had increased the budget from Rs 40 crore to Rs 60 crore.