Deaths of pedestrians, bikers falling in manholes, potholes ‘manmade’, ‘not natural’: Bombay HC

A division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Arif S Doctor was hearing a contempt petition filed by lawyer Ruju Thakker, alleging non-compliance of 2018 orders by civic authorities to repair potholes along all arterial roads in the city.

Pursuant to the August 9 order, commissioners of municipal corporations in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) including Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Vasai-Virar, Kalyan-Dombivali, Mira Bhayander and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) commissioner remained present in court.

Senior advocate Anil Sakhare, representing the BMC, submitted that potholes are created mainly on roads with asphalt surface and so far 395 km of roads have been concretised and within next three years, all roads will be concretised.

BMC chief Iqbal Singh Chahal stated that on account of unusually heavy rains in Mumbai this year, within a short span of five weeks after June 25, at many places potholes have surfaced. The BMC submitted that nearly 2,050 km of roads in the city were under its control and out of 59,533 potholes, which surfaced this year, 59,213 were immediately attended to. It claimed the number of potholes had increased due to record rains during five weeks between June 25 and July-end.

Chahal also submitted that all manholes in the city are covered and protective grills have been put on 6,308 manholes in flood-prone areas and grills will be fixed in rest of the over 94,000 manholes by May next year. However, the petitioner raised doubts over BMC’s claims, after which the bench directed immediate inspection through a spot survey of manholes in the city.

“You (BMC) might have done concretisation of certain kilometres of roads till now, that does not mean roads are in good condition. Everyday there are newspaper reports about bad roads and the net result is the same. I have been a student of statistics and we were taught that there are three types of lies in statistics. Lies, damned lies and statistical lies. These statistics are not to be confused with the amount of work that needs to be done. If you see your own data, the rainfall has not increased much this year. Main cause is negligence and what is done with government funds,” CJ Upadhyaya orally remarked.

State Government Pleader P P Kakade told the bench that the decision has not been taken yet pertaining to Chahal’s suggestion of last year of handing over all roads in Mumbai to one authority for their upkeep and the process is going on and sought time to take instructions to respond on the same. The bench quipped, “We are in August 2023. Almost a year has passed since the order. Such kind of conduct and slackness was not expected on your (state) part in such matters. Simple executive process was to be adopted and the decision was to be taken.”

It went on to remark, “The deaths of pedestrians or cyclists falling in manholes or potholes is a man-made cause, it’s not a natural cause. You not only have a constitutional duty under Article 21, but also a statutory obligation to supervise and monitor…All exercise need not be done by court. Why should we waste our time? It’s your job and responsibility.”

The bench asked the Thane District Collector about the death of a 37-year-old motorcyclist allegedly due to potholes on Ghodbunder road.

The court also asked other municipal corporations and authorities to ensure compliance with the September 30, 2022 order and sought exhaustive affidavits about the same. It also asked the state government to file an affidavit stating the steps taken by it to abide by assurance given by the secretary of Public Works Department (PWD) last year of continuous improvement in overall road conditions in Maharashtra. The HC will hear the plea next on September 29.