PWD fills potholes after protest

THANE: After the silent protest of Tuesday morning, the Public Works Department (PWD) was hard at work in the afternoon, filling potholes near Anandnagar toll plaza.

Most of the potholes which were highlighted by the Thane Citizen Forum were filled by the PWD using construction material. A PWD officer who did not wished to be named said, “We are continuously filling the potholes on this road. However there is lot of heavy vehicle traffic from the toll plaza, owing to which the roads are damaged repeatedly.”

Roads in Thane are maintained either by the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) or other bodies like the PWD, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation and National Highway Authority of India. Consequently, the question of who should fix the potholes can get stuck in jurisdiction tangles.

Last week, the TMC carried out a special pothole filling drive for three consecutive nights to ensure traffic was not disturbed during the day. However most potholes have re-appeared since then.

Anil Patil, city engineer of TMC, told HT, “There were over 2,562 potholes in the city, covering an area of 9,907.5 sq m. The maximum number of potholes were in Ghodbunder and Wagale Estate area. Last week, we carried out a three-day pothole filling drive and filled over 2,439 potholes. At present only 123 potholes are remaining.” Patil claimed the corporation has tried eight to 10 types of concrete mixes to fill the potholes. However, due to constant rain, none of them are holding.

Patil also said that the TMC has been repairing roads irrespective of the authority technically responsible for that stretch. “The civic chief has informed us to fill all the potholes on the road irrespective of the ownership of the road. We will send the bills to these authorities later,” he said.