State Deputy CM Ajit Pawar expressed his anger over the pothole issue. He is of the opinion that there is a need for concrete policy regarding roads which will put pressure on contractors to make good roads.
After construction, if the road develops potholes within 1 year then that contractor and the company should be blacklisted and banned from participating in future tenders.
While speaking to the media, Dy CM Ajit Pawar said, “If someone dies due to pothole then FIR should be registered against the contractor and appropriate action should be taken against them.”
Many roads within Mumbai city and adjacent satellite towns like Bhiwandi, Kalyan are really in bad shape. Recently two accidents on Bhiwandi-Nashik highway & Thane-Ghodbunder road have put the spotlight on this issue again.
Many times when accidents happened due to potholes or bad road conditions, it has been seen many times that the agencies start passing the buck to each other and no one is ready to take the onus and fix it.
On Tuesday, a 23-year-old biker in an attempt to avoid the pothole died on Thane-Ghodbunder road near the Gaimukh area. When asked about this incident to Thane Corporation Mayor Naresh Mhaske, he said, “It was a tragic incident but that road is of MSRDC and many times we have informed and reminded them to fix the potholes but there is no action. Hence I tender my apology to all Thane residents and if MSRDC doesn’t do that work soon we will start fixing these potholes on their roads.”
NCP leader of Opposition in Thane Corporation Najib Mulla said, “When death has happened, there can’t be any debate on the issue of jurisdiction. We will be taking up this issue with Thane’s guardian minister and state MSRDC minister Eknath Shinde and will ask him to instruct his officials to start fixing the roads and potholes on their roads. Both Thane-Nashik and Thane-Ghodbunder road are under MSRDC and not under Thane Corporation.”
