Mumbai Records 8,000+ Pothole Complaints Despite Rs 17,000-Crore Road Project

Mumbai has recorded 8,032 pothole-related complaints in just over two months this monsoon, with the eastern suburbs recording the highest number of complaints, even as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) continues its Rs 17,000-crore road concretisation programme.

Between June 10 and August 20 afternoon, the civic body received 8,032 complaints across its 26 wards and reported resolving 7,829 of them. Indian Express reported that the figure is close to last year’s count, when the BMC had received more than 8,600 pothole complaints by August 15.

S ward in Bhandup recorded the highest number of complaints at 471, followed by M/East ward, covering Govandi, Deonar and Mankhurd, with 461. M/West ward, which covers Chembur and Tilak Nagar, recorded 374 complaints, while L ward, covering Kurla and Saki Naka, reported 357.

At the other end, A ward, covering Churchgate and Fort, recorded 61 complaints, followed by D ward, covering Malabar Hill, with 62 and C ward with 69, according to figures reported by Indian Express.

The complaints were filed through several civic platforms, including more than 5,000 on the My BMC Marg forum, over 1,500 through WhatsApp and more than 800 on X.

The figures come as the BMC continues its road concretisation programme, launched in 2022 with the aim of concretising more than 700 km of the city’s 2,050 km road network that had remained non-concretised.

Before road works were suspended for the monsoon, the BMC had completely concretised 475 km and partially concretised another 101.91 km, according to civic data.

The civic body has maintained that road conditions have improved compared with the previous year, arguing that the number of complaints alone does not capture the severity of potholes.

“While we have received pothole complaints, the number cannot be the only objective criteria as we have seen a massive improvement over the previous year. We have observed that the quantity of mastic to fix potholes is much lower than what had been used last year in the same period. This is an indication of the fact that the potholes are less severe,” a senior civic official said.

According to the BMC, 99 per cent of potholes are repaired using mastic. The civic body has deployed 65 mastic cookers across its 26 wards this year, of which 52 are owned by the BMC and 13 are rented.

Civic officials have also linked a significant number of complaints to depressions around trenches dug for utility works. They said roads can develop depressions as the trenches settle after the work is completed.

“Wherever there has been recent trenching work and as the trench settles, we have observed higher pothole complaints in these locations,” an official said.

BMC Commissioner Ashwini Bhide said concretisation had helped reduce the number of potholes but acknowledged that bituminous stretches continued to have potholes. According to Indian Express, Bhide said the civic body’s teams were working around the clock to identify and repair potholes on such roads.

“The number of potholes has reduced owing to road concretisation this year. However, we definitely have some bituminous stretches where we have potholes. For that too, we have a mechanism through which once the potholes are identified by our people, it is identified by our teams and they work 24/7 to fix them,” Bhide told The Indian Express.

Bhide said the problem would continue on roads that have not yet been concretised.

“The potholes will, however, still keep the roads patchy. Once the roads are concretised, it will be taken care of,” she said.