BMC to impose penalty for digging potholes to set up Ganesh pandals

Deputy municipal commissioner (DMC) Ramakant Biradar said that a fine of Rs 2,000 will be imposed for each pothole.

“After the festival gets over, ward level teams will inspect the roads and if they find that there are potholes being caused due to the festival organizers digging the road then a penalty will be levied on them. The total number of potholes that have been caused will be counted and for each pothole Rs 2,000 penalty will be imposed on the organizers. Last year also we had framed the same policy,” Biradar told The Sunday Express on Saturday.

Earlier in 2022, the civic body had imposed a Rs 3,66,000 fine on Lalbaug cha Raja, one of the famous and oldest Ganesh Mandals of Mumbai.

Civic officials said that for crowd management the organisers set up barricades with bamboo sticks by digging the roads.

The officials maintained that while there is no restriction in setting these barricades, once the festival is over the management should also responsibly fill the dug-up portions.

On August 2, the Bombay High Court had also directed the civic body to frame a deterrent policy against those who would violate the norms and dig up public roads.

Organizing members meanwhile said that utmost care is being taken for maintaining the roads of Mumbai during the festival. “To avoid formation of potholes on roads we set up our pandals on an open ground. Besides this, we take utmost care of the road adjoining the ground as we ensure not a single bamboo is digging the portion of road,” Uday Salian, spokesperson of Andheri-cha-Raja Ganeshotsav told The Sunday Express.

Another member from Lalbaugh’s Tejukaya Trust Society said, “We don’t dig the roads to set up barricades. In case there is a pothole formed on the road near our pandal, we fill it up to make sure that the surface of the road stays even. Last year also the BMC inspected the roads in front of our pandal, but they couldn’t find any pothole”.