Rakesh Kambli is filled with dread each time he takes the main road of Aarey Milk Colony that connects the Goregaon end of the Western Express Highway (WEH) with Marol and Powai
Rakesh Kambli is filled with dread each time he takes the main road of Aarey Milk Colony that connects the Goregaon end of the Western Express Highway (WEH) with Marol and Powai. A ride through an 8-km stretch of this arterial road is a sure-shot way of ending up with a bad back.
Potholes have cropped up on at least three stretches between the WEH and the Aarey market, slowing down traffic to a crawl during peak hours.
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A car driver braces for a bumpy ride on an arterial road of Aarey Milk Colony. Pic/Nimesh Dave
The BMC took over the road from the Aarey CEO’s office in August 2014 for the ambitious Goregaon-Mulund Link Road project, which is yet to begin. It resurfaced and repaired several stretches of the road soon after. With the takeover, commuters had heaved a sigh of relief, believing that the civic body would do a better job of maintaining the road than private contractors tasked by the Aarey CEO’s office. That rosy picture lasted only a year. This monsoon, all the work has come undone.
Neglected again
Prassana K, a resident of Marol who rides his motorcycle on the road every day, explains that when the road was under the charge of the Aarey CEO’s office, it had been neglected due to shortage of funds. “After the BMC took it over, we thought it would maintain the road properly. For a year, the repairs held good. But, there are so many potholes now that there’s no escaping them.”
Motorists also allege that defunct streetlights at many spots only make matters worse. Kambli wonders if the authorities are waiting for disaster to come knocking before initiating remedial measures. “At many places, the potholes are life threatening. At night, they are not visible because streetlights are not functional at many spots. Can’t the BMC maintain even an 8-km stretch properly?”
Besides this stretch, the portion of the Aarey road near Picnic Point Garden towards Marol is uneven and pockmarked with potholes.
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