100 crores! That is the amount the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has earmarked for filling up potholes on Mumbai roads this year. It is now that time of the year...monsoon, when the first few showers seem to be washing away the roads. And Mumbai roads become...belly churners!
Belly churners because that is exactly the effect that these roads have on those who have the misfortune of driving through them. Apart from causing your heart to skip a beat or two these roads can give your innards a good workout too! The roads begin to resemble like the surface of the moon, with craters of various sizes and shapes all over the place. One feels the brunt of it, especially if you drive a low slung vehicle like I do. People tell me the trick is not to look out for the potholes but to lookout for any good patches of road still intact and get the car to hop, skip and jump around them! In spite of following that advise, the chassis of my car has numerous intimate moments with the potholes these days. Such encounters tend to not only impact the car, but also are a bit heavy on my heart, if you know what I mean.
So, why do we have these belly churners every monsoon. 100 crores sounds to be a big enough amount to me to ensure that there are no potholes. I think the answer lies somewhere else. Somebody in the system is not doing their job / well enough. The news items on potholes on the recently inaugurated Lalbaug and Barfiwala (Andheri) flyovers have done little for the image of the city's infrastructure. But I am sure Mumbaikars wouldn't have been surprised by these developments. Someone is certainly not doing their job well. I am told that every new road built by a civic road contractor has a guarantee period. I would be very interested in knowing how many times has BMC invoked this guarantee clause against the contractors.
There is also talk of a powerful cartel of civic road contractors, lobbying to keep the situation as it is, so that they can exploit it for their vested interests. Potholes then become pots of gold for these people. For example the carboncor technology is proven to be a long-lasting solution for Mumbai roads. However this cartel has lobbied and ensured that the use of this technology remains optional for road contractors who take up the job of filling these potholes. Most of them use bitumen which gets washed away with the first spell of rains, thus giving the opportunity to these contractors for repeatedly fill these potholes and keep submitting fat bills for doing so. This, in spite of a Bombay High Court order and a recommendation by a Statutory Technical Advisory Committee to use the carboncor technology.
The suffering for the common man only increases. Mumbai traffic, rains and the resultant potholes can (and does, on a daily basis) cause mayhem on the roads. A colleague of mine had to drive for 3 hours to get to work from Andheri (W) to Andheri (E)! I hope someone sane in the civic administration does something about this. The best solution is to privatise and make service providers directly accountable for the quality of the roads. But that is a long way away.....till then I guess I will just have to bear with running into one pothole to the other, every time I drive.
The other 'belly churner' was the movie that I watched this week, Delhi Belly. In more ways than one. But a more detailed review of that in the next post maybe.
Till then...take care!
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