'Make policy to improve roads'

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Friday suggested that the state government should provide a central redressal mechanism for complaints lodged by people to tackle the issue of potholes and bad roads across state, as according to the court every municipal corporation having a different policy would not solve this problem. The court has also directed the BMC to place the policy, to improve conditions of road before it by next week.

According to the judges, a person may not know which road falls under which authority and hence the government is under the obligation to set up a central mechanism and communicate a complaint to the concerned authority. The bench also observed that the people should also come forward and lodge formal complaints about bad roads.

The bench said that the mechanism to lodge complaint about bad roads should be displayed at important roads so that people know about it. However, BMC counsel Anil Sakhre said that the problem of potholes comes during monsoon and that too in June and July, so this cannot be an ongoing process, as the situation is brought under control after August.

The division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice P N Deshmukh on Friday directed the BMC to use the available expertise to improve conditions of roads.

The bench told the state government to appoint a body of experts to carry out an exercise on what technique and material should be used while constructing roads to ensure they remain potholes free.

The judges wondered why the government failed to appoint body of experts. “We are not experts, you should take help of experts…may be from IIT or some other organisation,” said Justice Oka.

Advocate Sakhre told the bench that after the death of a doctor last monsoon, after he fell into an open manhole in Central Mumbai, the BMC has come up with a new policy on manholes.