Blame game over potholes

Motorists on the Kalamboli iron and steel market have been complaining of pothole-ridden roads. Traders said the market’s interior roads have never been repaired by either the City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) nor the market committee.

Murlidhar Gurav, president of the local unit of Vahtul Sena, a transport union, demanded the authorities to at least take temporary measures to solve the problem. In 1980, Cidco leased plots in the Kalamboli market to the iron and steel traders. “It did not provide the infrastructure it promised,” he said.

“It was Cidco’s responsibility to construct the main roads. It has tried to shift the responsibility to the market committee, which in turn, blames Cidco,” said Harish Patil, a trader.

“The market does not have a Pothole-ridden roads at Kalamboli’s iron and steel market are giving motorists a tough ride.

proper drainage system, which leads to heavy waterlogging during monsoon,” he added.

“The market has one service road which is 20-m wide and 7-km long, and another which is 15-m wide and 15-km long. The two see heavy traffic every day but they have neither been asphalted nor concretised,” said Gurav.

Cidco has concretised around

6 km around the market’s periphery. “We submitted a memorandum to market committee officials. They told us that tenders have been called but we have not seen any results,” he said.

“We made arrangements to remove water. We plan to concretise five internal roads,” said market committee chairman Gulabrao Jagtap.