MMRDA fears backlash of BMC’s potholes

Fearing backlash from the motorists, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and the traffic department has told the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Public Work Department (PWD) to make the Western Express Highway (WEH) and Linking Road free from potholes before the construction work on two Metro corridors begins in full swing.

While the BMC maintains the Linking Road, PWD maintains WEH. Work on both Dahisar-DN Nagar Metro-2A corridor that is planned on the median of Linking Road and the Dahisar east Andheri east Metro-7 corridor is planned on

WEH that is on the left hand side towards Ahmedabad was started in August. However, work started in full swing since October 1.

Both the MMRDA and traffic department fear that due to ongoing Metro work 2-3 lanes are going to be shut while potholes on the other lanes could affect the average speed of vehicles, further choking traffic on both the roads used by lakhs of motorists everyday.

U.P.S. Madan, metropolitan commissioner, MMRDA, said, “We have informed all the agencies to coordinate in the best possible way to avoid public inconvenience. Smoothening the roads where Metro work is ongoing is one part of it, for which we have informed the concerned agencies.”

However, to avoid bottlenecks MMRDA has prepared a traffic management plan where diversions and logistical support to the traffic department would be given by the MMRDA.

Joint commissioner of police, traffic, Milind Bharambe, said, “One of the reasons for traffic jams is potholes. Average speed of vehicles is affected due to bad roads and it will be very challenging to handle traffic where Metro work and potholes are hand in hand. We have informed the BMC and PWD to remove all potholes at the earliest.”

Confirming that the PWD is working on the action plan to make WEH pothole-free, S.S. Deshmukh, executive engineer, PWD, “We are working on the action plan of making WEH potholes free and in a meeting held on Thursday it was decided that by October 16 all the potholes on the WEH would be filled.”

Meanwhile, both Sanjay Deshmukh, the additional municipal commissioner in charge of roads and Sanjay Darade, chief engineer, road department were unavailable for comments.

Civic body on receiving end The civic body and PWD have been receiving criticism by the opposition parties, citizens and activists alike over the sorry state of roads in the city, which are rife with potholes. Last month, the Bombay high court while hearing a plea had said that BMC is under statutory obligation to maintain and improve all the public roads and streets in the city under Section 61 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, and it cannot cite any impediments to justify inaction.