No more potholes for life

Representation pic

There has been a lot of talk about poor roads over the past three decades or so, which may come as a surprise to some of us who believe this sort of thing ought to be resolved a lot faster. What most people don't seem to realise is that a big city like Bombay needs time to build roads, maintain them, then keep maintaining them. Without constant rounds of maintenance, the BMC will not be able to dip into its annual budget for roads, which cannot be allowed to happen. Repairs are the lifeblood of economic growth in Maharashtra because they keep income flowing to people who matter.

This may explain why a 120-metre stretch in Bandra can take more than 100 days to fix, instead of a week at best. If that sounds unreasonable and smells a little fishy to the more cynical folk amongst us, I must say that this suspicion is all in your mind. If you have questions about why these processes seem unnecessarily drawn out, you can always take it up with the contractors responsible, if you can find any of their names on the noticeboards placed around road repair sites. I am also sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for why these names don't appear as often as they used to.

For everyone who has been complaining about how the city is dug up without a plan, how commute times have doubled, how senior citizens are afraid to step outside their homes, or how traffic has caused immeasurable damage to the quality of life, there has been good news recently. A couple of weeks ago, the chief minister assured reporters that 700 kilometres of roads would be concreted by April 2027. Yes, I am aware that the ‘pothole free' announcement of 2022 listed 2025 as the deadline, but it isn't fair to hold the state government responsible for this two-year delay. There is always a possibility that the April 2027 deadline may move to April 2029, but what's a few years when vehicle owners can finally have smoother drives? We should all be prepared to sacrifice a little of our time today for the good of car owners tomorrow.

The other important thing that was glossed over in the excitement of this new announcement was that the BMC has begun a crackdown on substandard work. To be fair, we have been hearing about these crackdowns since before colour televisions were invented, but this year's official statement reiterates that no negligence or poor-quality work will be tolerated. I can only imagine that before this, poor work was merely frowned upon.

Still, not everyone may be optimistic, given how the BMC mentions potholes once every year like clockwork whenever it brings up those other two constants - storm water drainage and the Mithi river clean-up. Now, however, there is also talk of heavy penalties and bans. Apparently, one contractor has already been banned from participating in any BMC tender for the next two years and has been fined a staggering R5 lakh. In other words, that poor person will have to rely only on the crores already earned for substandard work.

Another positive development has been the promise of surprise inspections during ongoing work. It says a lot about who we are as a people that the concept of a surprise inspection needs to exist in the first place. The implication is that if no one's watching, we can't trust our own countrymen from doing what is right for the greater good. Then again, if these checks mean we may get two or three decent roads before the monsoon, why ruin that possibility with pessimism?

All we need to remind ourselves, whenever we step out, or when our friends call to say they've been stuck on the Andheri Link Road for two hours, is that Bombay's roads are to remain pothole-free for the next quarter century after this concretisation exercise is completed. I'm not the one saying it; the Chief Minister did, and we all know that politicians stick to their word in this country.

When the dust finally settles, and vehicular traffic starts to move in 2027, my hope is that the Chief Minister will divert a few crores for the benefit of those who don't own a vehicle. It may be my imagination, but a majority still walk in this city, and maybe the BMC will start to acknowledge that at some point too, even if it's not a lucrative audience to care about.

When he isn't ranting about all things Mumbai, Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet. He tweets @lindsaypereira

Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com