National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) informed the Bombay High Court on Monday that the work of filling up potholes on the Mumbai-Nashik expressway is in full flow and will be complete before October 25.
The Mumbai-Nashik Expressway is a toll road on which commuters pay Rs 120 for one-way travel on the over 100-km stretch.
This comes after the High Court on September 24 asked the Centre and the state government to be “serious” about the issue of potholes on the Mumbai-Nashik Expressway and other highways in the state and make coordinated efforts to ensure lives are not lost due to the poor condition of roads.
A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Girish S Kulkarni had taken cognisance of news reports on potholes on the Mumbai-Nashik highway, a part of the old Mumbai-Agra Highway.
Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh representing the Centre informed the HC that the repair work on the 24-km stretch between Thane and Vadape is in progress with three teams of NHAI working on it and it will be complete by Tuesday, “unless there is heavy rainfall in the area.”
He also added that repair and work on filling up potholes for the rest of the expressway, between Vadape and Nashik (97 km) will be done in nearly three weeks, with seven teams working on it, as a 4-5 km of the stretch is ‘severely damaged.’ He said that the said work would be complete before the next hearing.
Please come back next on October 25 and give us the status of the filling up of potholes and patchwork,” the bench told the Centre and adjourned the hearing.
Nashik’s Guardian Minister Chhagan Bhujbal had recently pulled up senior officials of NHAI and PWD for the poor condition of the stretch. Bhujbal had warned officials of action if the highway was not repaired soon.
On September 20, while hearing a PIL raising concerns over the poor condition of the Mumbai-Goa Highway and delay in completion of its widening work, the HC had asked the state government to consider a state-wide policy with “concrete measures” to deal with the “recurring issue” of potholes on public roads and highways to avoid accidents and traffic jams suffered by “common citizens”.
