NMC repairs 4,355 potholes in 7 months, yet roads not smooth

Nagpur: The Nagpur Municipal Corporation has repaired 4,355 potholes and patches in the last seven months (roughly 622 a month), yet driving in city is not easy.
Piyush Janbandhu, a resident of Govind City, said, “The potholes in front of Rashtrasant Tukdoji Maharaj Apartment in Zingabai Takli were repaired, followed by patchwork, but the road is damaged again.If this is the pattern of repair work, the civic body must take action against contractors who built these roads in the first place.”
Despite the fact that the civic body is repairing on an average 24 potholes daily, the inconvenience caused due to this continues for residents, including heavy traffic jams and waterlogging across the city.
As per the data procured from NMC, the hot mix department has repaired 4,355 potholes, including 850 using ‘insta road patcher’, from January 1, 2020, to July 31, 2020. Despite this, the condition of city roads in many areas is bad.
The data shows the highest number of potholes were repaired under Nehru Nagar zone. The department claims to have repaired 656 potholes here, followed by 510 in Mangalwari zone and 414 in Laxmi Nagar zone.
The least potholes were reported from old city areas under Satranjipura zone. The department repaired only 81 potholes between January 1 and July 31,2020, followed by 180 in Lakadganj zone.
TOI has been highlighting how NMC and other government agencies like state’s public works department, Nagpur Improvement Trust and NHAI are carrying out shoddy road repair works in the city. According to traffic experts, bad roads indirectly cost citizens by way of damage to vehicles and time lost in transit.
Experts also blamed the problem on hasty construction, often without proper foundation and deferred repairs over decades. A major part of the road network is decaying faster than it is being rebuilt.
Traffic experts also stressed the need to ensure contractors should erect boards containing details like amount spent on the road, its defect liability period etc, which is also being ignored.
NMC engineers claimed they repair all the road patches and potholes as soon as they are informed about them. According to them, they don’t get enough time to complete the process.
“Immediately after repair work is done, traffic operations begin, thus causing damage to the repaired patches,” they said.
Zones --- Potholes Repaired
Laxmi Nagar --- 414
Dharampeth --- 385
Hanuman Nagar---327
Dhantoli --- 260
Nehru Nagar --- 656
Gandhibagh --- 334
Satranjipura---81
Lakadganj---180
Ashi Nagar---358
Mangalwari---510
Insta Road Patcher---850