Mumbai: Maharashtra deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde on Monday directed all municipal corporations to work immediately to celebrate a pothole-free Ganeshotsav. At a special meeting to resolve the issue of potholes on the roads in various major cities of the state in the backdrop of Ganeshotsav, Shinde directed that modern technologies such as precast and geo-polymer techno patches should be used to fill roads immediately during the monsoon, and that a time-bound programme should be implemented to fill potholes on the city’s internal roads and drainage routes immediately.Shinde said other agencies like the Public Works Department, MSRDC, MIDC and PMRDA should coordinate and appoint a team to ensure that potholes do not occur on the roads under their jurisdiction and, if they do occur, they should be repaired immediately. Shinde said that if the roads under the jurisdiction of these agencies are causing trouble to the citizens, the local municipality should repair them at its own expense and recover the cost from the relevant agency.“Many complaints are coming from all the major cities of the state regarding potholes on the roads, and the high court has also taken note of these potholes and directed the govt to fill them immediately. All municipal commissioners must immediately start filling the potholes lying everywhere in the city,” Shinde said.“Work should be started immediately to ensure that there are no potholes on these roads after reviewing the facilities at the immersion routes, main procession routes, and immersion ghats in the major cities of the state. Also, teams of other officers should be appointed to fill potholes on other roads in the city and through them, regular reviews of the roads in the city should be conducted, phone numbers should be announced to provide information about potholes on the roads, and complaints about potholes received through the application should be redressed immediately. A 24×7 system should be ready to repair the roads in the city, regular inspections of the ongoing works should be carried out, and if time permits, the commissioner should not stay in the office but go to the field and review the road works. Photos of potholes that have occurred and those that have been repaired should be posted on social media to inform the citizens about the work done,” Shinde said.Precast and geopolymer technopatch technologies offer ultra-fast, eco-friendly solutions for filling road potholes. They bypass traditional cement curing delays, allowing heavy traffic to resume within two to four hours of application without needing water-curing.
