After facing flak for failing to prevent potholes on roads, Shiv Sena has decided to target the BJP over the poor state of city roads, which are overseen by state government agencies. Mayor Snehal Ambekar on Friday visited the pothole riddled Western Express Highway (WEH) and blamed state agencies of not maintaining it properly.
Sena has been slammed by its alliance partner BJP as well as Opposition parties in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for pockmarked roads in the city. It has also been facing heat for the corruption in road repairs scam, in which 24 people, including two municipal chief engineers, have been arrested so far. The BJP leaders have been accusing Sena of shielding corrupt elements in the civic body.
Upset over this, the Sena has decided to return the favours by targeting the state government over potholes on roads maintained by its agencies.
“Roads in Mumbai belong to various authorities and it is their responsibility to maintain them. However, the BMC is unnecessarily being blamed for potholes even on roads, which are not owned by it,” said the mayor, who inspected the WEH and other service roads from Kherwadi Junction to Dahisar.
Of the pothole complaints received so far, we are taking review of how many are there on BMC roads and how many on other roads, she added.
A day earlier, Ms Ambekar had also written a letter to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, asking him to convene a meeting of all authorities that are operating in Mumbai, to solve the roads and traffic problem in the city. “The Western and Eastern Express Highways are not owned by the BMC. Both these highways are plagued by potholes. As state government agencies are maintaining them, they should seriously look into this matter,” she said in the letter.
Mumbai has approximately 1,900 km of roads. Of these, about 1,300 km roads are under the BMC. The WEH, Eastern Express Highwa-y, service roads, flyovers and roads under skywalks and metro corridors are not under the BMC’s authority. They come under MMRDA, MSRDC and PWD – all state government bodies. Of them, 150 km and 100 km belong to the MMRDA and PWD respectively.
BJP leaders PWD minister Chandrakant Patil and city chief Ashish Shelar visited the WEH and assured citizens that the potholes would be filled by next Friday.
