The residents of Mumbai decided to paint the potholes on the occasion of Navratri colours in a bid to raise awareness about the crumbling roads of the city. Led by the Watchdog Foundation, the citizens activist group painted the potholes on Marol Church Road in Andheri East to highlight the damaged roads and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) lack of action against the same. Interestingly, the citizens reported that the road was promptly fixed within four hours of the protest. The civic body is responsible for maintaining the road and infrastructure in the main city as well as the suburbs but road conditions have only gone from bad to worse in the monsoon season.
The protestors decided to paint the potholes to highlight the appalling road conditions that pose a threat to motorists
Speaking to carandbike about the protest, Godfrey Pimenta, advocate and co-founder of the Watchdog Foundation said, “We have been consistently highlighting this issue and this year it coincided with the Navrati festival. Despite the Chief Minister's assurance to fill the potholes before Ganpati, there are still many areas where this issue is still there, particularly in the suburbs. The suburbs are given step-motherly treatment. In South Mumbai, the roads are spick and span and the suburbs pay the highest tax to the corporation and despite that, they are getting step-motherly treatment.”
“We painted all the different colours of Navratri in the potholes in order to highlight the issue in the day but the BMC came and repaired the road within a few hours. There is not a trace of paint on the road and it looks like a brand new road,” he added.
With colours having a special significance for each day of Navratri, the activists were of the opinion that there couldn't be a better way to highlight the plight of citizens across the city. While the first of its kind protest was held in Marol, the Watchdog foundation plans to replicate the same in other parts of the city as well over the nine days of the festive period.
Not just better quality roads but the protestors are also demanding accountability and action against the contractors who are responsible for building and maintaining these roads. The protest does put BMC in an embarrassing spot once again, especially considering the civic body gets one of the biggest budgets in the country to run the city. In FY2021-22, BMC's budget stood at Rs 39,038.83 crore, which was more than the budgets of eight state governments including Tripura, Nagaland, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Sikkim and Goa. For FY2022-23, BMC has allocated about Rs. 2,200 crore for improving road conditions.
The BMC has allocated Rs. 2,200 for improving road conditions in Mumbai in FY2022-22
Interestingly, Maharashtra's Chief Minister Eknath Shinde issued a diktat in July this year promising that all Mumbai roads will be concretised by 2024. BMC has jurisdiction over 2,039 km of roads, out of which about 1,400 km have already been concretised.
