The Bombay High Court (HC) on Monday said it cannot keep monitoring every road accident caused due to potholes and ultimately it is the city civic body`s responsibility to ensure motorable roads and pedestrian-friendly footpaths.
As per news wire PTI report, a division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Upadhyaya and Justice Arif Doctor noted that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) claimed to have spent Rs 273 crore on the filling of potholes last monsoon but the condition of roads continues to remain poor.
HC was hearing the plea by advocate Ruju Thakker, seeking contempt action against BMC authorities for failing to implement the HC orders of 2018. In the order, HC had directed for potholes repairs along with all arterial road in Mumbai city and neighboring area.
The petitioner has been pointing out to the bench since last year several instances of fatal road accidents due to potholes. “Monitoring every single road accident and pothole is becoming difficult. Ultimately it is their (BMC) responsibility,” CJ Upadhyaya said, PTI report added.
BMC counsel Anil Sakhare told the court that the city roads are being concretised which would solve the potholes issues. As per the BMC affidavit, of the total 2,050 km roads in the city, 1,224 km roads have been concretised and work on 356 km is in progress.
The HC bench will hear the matter further on April 15.
Meanwhile, citizen activists have been alleging that despite spending hundreds of crores on new technologies to deal with the potholes issue, BMC has been using paver blocks to fill potholes. In September 2023, BMC had said that since May 1 it had filled 69,533 potholes in Mumbai city and suburbs. Although, the number showed satsfying on paper, citizens say the ground reality contradicts to BMC claims.
BMC had also claimed that it levied a penalty of Rs 28.15 crore on contractors who failed to do implement works after tenders were awarded to concretise various roads across the city.
(With PTI inputs)
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