The state government is considering over consigning the job of road maintenance in Mumbai to a single authority in order to rid the city of pothole menace. To ensure uniform quality and accountability it is essential that one body maintain all roads in the metropolis, the city planners feel.

The ‘road and transport exports’ has proposed this as a solution. They say that having a single agency would help maintain uniform quality across the city.

Currently, there are a glut of agencies and departments looking after roads and flyovers maintenance in Mumbai. The Public Works Department (PWD) looks after Western and Eastern Express Highway (WEH and EEH). The BMC focuses on arterial roads like SV Road, LBS Marg and other internal roads.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) maintains flyovers it constructed in the last five years, like the Santacruz-Chembur Link Road. Some flyovers are also under the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporations (MSRDC) – whose agency, Mumbai Entry Point Limited, collects toll at five entry points to the city and is also supposed to maintain a majority of flyovers on WEH, EEH and Sion-Panvel highway.

Lack of coordination among agencies, even at the planning stage, results in ad-hocism. In order to have a good network of superior-quality roads, there needs to be a single authority whose duty is to build and maintain roads.”

This year, like every year, potholes on roads have continued to place severe physical and mental strain upon Mumbaikars. WEH, portions of EEH, large stretches of SV Road and LBS Marg are pockmarked.

 

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