Mumbai, Panvel Civic Body Fill Potholes As Heavy Rains Lash City, Asphalting At Hold

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Panvel Municipal Corporation (PMC) carried out operations to fill potholes in the areas under their respective jurisdiction.

The BMC stated that they filled around 6,045 potholes from April 1 to July 24. On the other hand, PMC carried out pothole-filling work in its jurisdiction after the city catered to potholes on July 24-25.

It is pertinent to take into account that from this year, the BMC will also be in charge of maintaining the Western (WEH) and Eastern Express (EEH) routes, which are notorious for having potholes during the rainy season.

BMC officials stated that they deployed designated teams for solving the recurring issue of potholes, especially on the two major highways. In order to fix potholes, the BMC employs the traditional cold mix technique. A novel method of patching potholes using hardened concrete was also disclosed by the city authority this year.

According to the civic officials, cold mix techniques were used to fill the majority of the potholes. Officials further stated that 512 metric tonnes of dry cold mix have already been delivered to Mumbai's 24 municipal wards to fix potholes. Additionally, each municipal ward has been given a fund of Rs 2 crore to help with pothole problems.

"While the deadline for filling a pothole is of 48 hours, we are trying to achieve this within 24 hours by implementing adequate manpower and machinery," stated a representative.

All four wards—Kharghar, Kalamboli, Kamothe, and Panvel—had potholes that PMC fixed recently. After reviewing the state of the roads in each of these wards, municipal commissioner Ganesh Deshmukh urgently instructed the relevant department to take action right away. The work was then completed.

Prior to the monsoon this year, the Municipal Corporation had finished patching potholes and paving roughly 2.51 km of roads in the four wards by the end of June. However, in the new Panvel, Kamothe, Kharghar, and Kalamboli nodes of the city, excavation work for a large gas line was carried out by Mahanagar Gas between April and May, which caused roughly 29.70 km of roadways to be disrupted.

The Municipal Corporation had given authorization for the gas channel operations, and the gas firm paid a price for restoring the roads after the excavation was finished.

The repair work started at the end of May, and the first phase concentrated on the ongoing excavation work. followed by asphalting. However, asphalting work is currently unfeasible due to the ongoing rainy conditions. The authorities have carried out road maintenance using gravel and paver blocks as a temporary measure to ensure smooth traffic flow and minimise disruption to inhabitants. This interim arrangement will last until the conclusion of the monsoon season on October 15. Full asphalting will then begin. 

For those unversed, BMC had earlier described reactive asphalt as a type of asphalt mixed with chemicals and gravels, which makes it stronger than normal asphalt. The Municipal body further added that after using this mix, no complaints against potholes have been received from the citizens.