Now,BMC blames other agencies

“If other agencies fail to carry out this work,BMC will do the work for them for a fee. We will also fill potholes caused by trenching work which is carried out by over 35 utility agencies and charge them for it,” said Srinivas.

He added that the civic roads department is in the process of developing a plan for improving city roads for the next three years,which will be tabled before the standing committee in two months. “We will hold a meeting with the Standing Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) to work out other solutions besides cold mix and hot mix filling for potholes,” Srinivas said.

However,in the absence of an immediate solution,corporators,currently under fire from citizens for the city’s poor maintenance of roads,launched into a three-hour tirade against other state agencies.

Shiv Sena corporator and leader of the BMC general body,Yashodhar Phanse said,“In many areas,where the infrastructure projects of MMRDA,MMRDC and other state agencies are on,the drains and water pipelines have been carelessly broken. This is the main cause for the creation of potholes in many areas of the city.”

BJP corporator Dilip Patel added,“The agencies do not even have a count of how many potholes have been reported on their roads. Pothole repair works are carried out haphazardly on their roads which are major arterial roads for Mumbai. Because the PWD undertook pothole repairs during the day,traffic on the eastern and western express highway was stalled for hours last week. This shows bad planning on their part and a negligent attitude to the situation.”

Standing committee chairperson Rahul Shewale said,“The state agencies must submit an action plan in the next 15 days on how they will address the pothole issue and we will discuss these plans at the next meeting.”

According to officials from MSRDC and MMRDA,present at the meeting,of the 550 potholes reported,33 potholes are pending repairs on MSRDC roads and 254 potholes pending repairs on MMRDA roads. Meanwhile,the pothole-tracking website http://www.voiceofcitizen.com says that of the 15,961 potholes reported,1,500 potholes are still pending repairs by the civic body’s central roads department while 569 potholes are pending repairs on roads maintained at the ward level.

Samajwadi Party corporator Rais Shaikh said,“While roads stretching up to about 1,945 km are maintained by the BMC,only 37 km fall under PWD and 22km under MMRDA. The civic body is blaming agencies which manage barely a percentage of all city roads.” Congress corporator Pravin Chheda demanded that the corporation should also put the city’s 24 ward officers in charge of ensuring all roads in their respective wards are pothole free.

Two weeks back,during the first special standing committee meeting on potholes,Shewale had blamed former additional municipal commissioner Aseem Gupta and the STAC for the poor maintenance of city roads.