When the city’s main highway is ridden with potholes, it’s rather optimistic to expect a bypass to be in a better condition. The arterial Aarey Milk Colony road, too, has developed huge potholes as a result of heavy rains
When the city’s main highway is ridden with potholes, it’s rather optimistic to expect a bypass to be in a better condition and the Public Works Department (PWD) has not disappointed. The arterial Aarey Milk Colony road, too, has developed huge potholes as a result of the recent heavy rains.
Motorists use this road to go to Powai and Marol Naka from the Western suburbs if they wish to avoid the highways. However, the potholes have ensured that a more than 1-km long traffic was observed, right from the toll plaza to Chhota Kashmir, on the road recently.
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What is compounding the problem is that streetlights are not working, making driving in the night extremely difficult. The PWD ‘repaired’ this road only four months ago.
Speaking to mid-day, Aarey Dairy CEO L R Bhosale said, “Time and again, we have sent reminders to the executive engineer of PWD, who is in charge of the Aarey Milk colony road. But, there has been no proper response.
Potholes on the Aarey Milk Colony road are causing traffic jams and also increasing the risk of two-wheelers skidding. Pics/Kaushik Thanekar
We had dispatched reminders well before the monsoon began to ensure that the road is in proper condition and no problems arise. However, potholes emerged after two to three days of rainfall.”
Bumping along
Yesterday, mid-day took a bumpy ride from the Aarey toll naka to Powai and Marol toll plaza, and we saw potholes on most parts of the road. At some places, the craters are big enough to cause serious accidents and incidents of two-wheelers skidding have been observed near the Aarey Hospital junction.
When questioned why a road, which was repaired just four months ago, was in such a deplorable condition, PWD authorities didn’t have a proper answer, and simply said they had followed all guidelines. An engineer from PWD said, “While making the road, we had levelled it completely and also laid a layer of stones and stone crush. We later put tar on top and ran a roadroller to even the surface.
We admit that potholes have appeared, but they are on the stretch that was not repaired.” He further clarified that when the repairs were on, this patch was fine and that it had been damaged only now. However, we saw the potholes on repaired stretches as well. Commuters alleged that inferior quality materials were used, resulting in such a condition.
Prabhu Swami, who uses this route to travel on his bike, said, “How can a road that was repaired a few months ago get potholes after just a few showers? There seems to be a big scam and I think materials used for the road were of substandard quality.
There needs to be an investigation into the procedure followed by PWD.” Road expert Nandkumar Salvi, a retired official from the BMC’s road department, said the norms were not followed and this is the reason why the potholes have cropped up.
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