Mumbai: The Bombay high court has said that not just people using the Mumbai-Goa highway during the Ganesh festival but that people using it throughout the year are entitled to pothole-free roads. The court has asked the state government and the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to file an affidavit stating what steps have been taken to fill up potholes on the Mumbai-Goa highway.
A division bench of Justice Abay Oka and Justice Riyaz Chagla was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by lawyer Owais Pechkar, informing the court that the stretch between Panvel and Goa on national highway 66 had been damaged due to heavy rain this year. The petition said that the stretch was riddled with potholes and posed a threat to the lives of countless commuters each day. The petition said that more people were likely to use the stretch in the coming months when they travelled to their hometowns and villages in Konkan during the upcoming Ganesh festival.
The court on Friday directed the state government to clarify who was responsible for the maintenance and repair work of the Mumbai-Goa national highway. Accordingly, assistant government pleader Nisha Mehara submitted the report of the national highway division, Pen and Raigad (NHD) and public works department (PWD). The state cleared that the 84km stretch between Palaspe near Pen and Indapur fell under the NHAI. And, the stretch from 84km to 450km fell under the state government.
After perusing the report, the court expressed surprise and said that on the 121km of road, the actual pothole length was only 7.50 km. However, the petitioner told the court that only a week ago when he travelled along the Mumbai-Goa highway, he found there were many more potholes than the number mentioned by the state government in its report.
The court also expressed surprise after reading the remark made by the PWD department in the report saying, “The percentage of potholes is very much low and traffic is moving smoothly”. The court has kept the petition for further hearing next Tuesday.
