Besides main roads, the situation of these roads has also worsened due to the occurrence of these craters; a civic official says potholes can only be repaired during a dry spell
Potholes on the WEH near the airport at Vile Parle. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar
It's not just the Western Express highway that is riddled with potholes, the Aarey Milk Colony road, which is in possession of the BMC, and connects the WEH to Marol and Powai, has started developing potholes. Within two days of heavy rains, the situation of arterial roads in Mumbai has worsened due to potholes. Aarey Milk Colony road During mid-day's visit to the arterial Aarey Milk Colony road stretch that connects the WEH at Goregaon to Marol and Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road near Powai, we found many potholes on it.
More than 20,000 to 25,000 vehicles use the main road in Aarey to reach Powai from Goregaon, as motorists can avoid the traffic jam on the arterial Jogeshwari-Vikhroli link road. In few places the potholes are so big and deep that in case of waterlogging it becomes difficult for motorists or two-wheeler riders to spot them, which means some of them could even meet with accidents.
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Western Express Highway
The situation of the arterial roads from WEH is also the same in many places between the Aarey flyover and the Santacruz-Kalina flyover. Potholes have also started occurring on the north and south-bound stretch of the highway. The worst stretch with potholes is between Jog flyover in Andheri and the JVLR flyover on WEH near Jogeshwari. Another bad stretch of potholes and uneven road surface is between the Kalina-Vakola flyover and the airport flyover.
The western suburb's longest connecting roads, S V Road and Linking Road; and LBS Road in the eastern suburbs are also riddled with potholes. Many citizens have shared photos of these roads on social media. Ankit Sanghvi has tweeted, "This road (Patel Chowk, Ghatkopar east) has been in a pathetic state since a long time but no action has been taken by BMC #MumbaiRains".
Another citizen with the Twitter handle Dharini wrote about the pathetic condition of the road near Mehboob Studio in Bandra. "So happy to see where our faith & money go each year...down potholes! Thanks for the consistency #BMC," tweeted Dharini.
Potholes can be seen all over the city leading to massive traffic jams and suffering for motorists. According to officials, the pothole menace will increase as their repairs will need dry spells. IMD officials say there will be rains for the next couple of days. In that case the potholes could become worse and more could appear.
Official speak
A senior official from the BMC said, "Potholes will be repaired only during a dry spell. The material needs a dry surface otherwise it will wash out. Haphazard trenching is the main cause of potholes and it has damaged intact roads due to poor reinstatement."
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