Mumbai:
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| The pothole ridden Haribhau Rupwate Marg at Goregaona |
IF Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh's recommendation to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation of paying Rs 1,000 to citizens spotting potholes had become a rule, the residents of Goregaon's Haribhau Rupwate Marg would have earned the most. The 200-metre long road has more than 200 potholes.
The complaintTalking about the woes, Winnie Saldanha, a resident of Haribhau Rupwate Marg, says, "It is a back-breaking experience driving on this road. And for those travelling by rickshaws, no driver is willing to come here.
This road also leads to Siddharth Hospital and a school nearby. The BMC started the work three years ago to cover it, which they did. But once the monsoon began, the potholes have resurfaced." Saldanha has even filed several complaints with the BMC, but in vain.
Divider rules Haribhau Rupwate Marg has two corporators ruling on either side of the divider. While one side of the divider falls under Ward No 52 whose corporator is Dilip Patel, the other side is under Ward No 51 whose corporator is Dilip Shinde.
The justificationJustifying his stand, Shiv Sena corporator Shinde blames the BMC. He says, "Residents are suffering because of BMC ignorance. I have taken Municipal Commissioner Dr Jairaj Phatak on a round on this road. He has promised to solve the problem after the rains by concretising it."
BJP corporator Dilip Patel says, "We had sewerage line work on this road. The contractor ran away leaving the work incomplete. We have blacklisted him and now after the monsoons we will restart the sewerage lines work and concretise the road after that."
When quizzed about the problems the residents are facing, Patel says, "I will ask the officials to give some temporary respite to the residents by repairing the road."
Officials sayBP Kolekar, Assistant Municipal Commissioner, P South ward, says, "The road was dug few months ago to change the sewerage operations pipes. We have temporarily made arrangements for the monsoon. We will be concretising the road from October 1."
When Municipal Commissioner Jairaj Phatak was contacted, he accepted that the BMC has not given its best to maintaining and keeping city roads free of potholes.
Meanwhile Chief Minister Deshmukh has already asked the BMC and the MMRDA officials to pull up their socks and make roads navigable for the Ganapati festival. The number of pothole locations detected till date remains 9,014 and pothole locations attended are 8,818.
