Claiming that its new technology of pothole-tracking software used to carry out repairs to potholes in a time-bound manner has been fairly successful so far,the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation on Thursday said that 2,224 complaints of potholes were received using this technology from June 1-28,of which 1,701 complaints have been attended to and closed so far. After adopting the new system,the civic body has done away with its old system of pothole repairs wherein ward-level road officials would physically do rounds of the ward,identify potholes and bad patches and direct the contractor to carry out repairs. As per the new system,all BMC road officials and citizens can click pictures of potholes or bad patches and upload it on the website www.voiceofcitizen.com. Once a picture is uploaded and screened,the sub-engineer concerned is alerted,who in turn alerts the contractor who has to fill the pothole within 24 hours of receiving the intimation from the sub-engineer, said additional municipal commissioner Aseem Gupta. Of the 2,224 reported potholes,1,343 were reported by citizens and the remaining 881 were reported by BMC officials. The picture can be uploaded on the site only if the phone is GPS (global positioning system) enabled which automatically uploads the exact location of the pothole or bad patch. Of the remaining 523 complaints,298 have not been acted upon at all,101 are in the process of being repaired by the contractor and the remaining 124 are repaired but are to be okayed by road officials. The new system,developed by Pune-based Probity Software,was introduced by the BMC in January. From January 1-June 28,3,141 complaints were reported of which 2,223 potholes were attended to. The system was criticised as initially its use was limited only to Android phone users. The scope has now been widened to include all phones that are GPS-enabled. Gupta said the biggest advantage of this system was that it increased accountability as each and every pothole was numbered and its picture uploaded on the site. Earlier,the only way to see the progress was physical inspection that was practically impossible for all the places. Under this new system,each sub-engineer and junior engineer along with the 12 contractors are held accountable for the repair work done by them, he said.
