Mumbai: The real onset of monsoon started just a week back but India’s financial hub is already up against chaotic traffic, trains being delayed due to flooding on tracks and nightmarish road journeys as potholes have turned into craters.
Though some arterial roads have been able to withstand the heavy rains of the last few days, several streets in low lying areas have been getting waterlogged and delaying people during peak hours, banker Saurabh Bhaskar said.
“The commute between Ghatkopar West through L B S Marg to my office in Bandra-Kurla-Complex is just a 4-5 km drive but it took me more than an hour during peak time because of water logging,” he said.
He was, however, thankful for the small mercies as there aren’t many potholes here, at least for now.
Another retired banker from Borivali complained, “Going from our home to Chembur, my family and I had a rough journey whilst passing through the Jogeshwari stretch.
“Why does the civic body fill up these potholes with substandard material that come off in the first rains?” she said, adding, “Waterlogging, too, is another danger confronted by all Mumbaikars.
“My domestic help fell into a drain and was injured as the road was flooded during heavy rains on Wednesday. Who is accountable for such incidents and accidents?”
Every monsoon, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) boasts of being rain-ready — of filling up thousands of potholes across Mumbai, cleaning the river-turned-drains that carry loads of garbage and plastic, moving people living in or near high risk places and installing pumps in flood-prone areas. Last year, the condition of roads was so pathetic that even the Bombay High Court pulled up the BMC for its poor maintenance of roads.
This year, the maintenance of Western Express and Eastern Express Highways, the main arterial roads, have been handed to Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority by the Public Works Department for a period of five years.
