PWD

MMRDA

Voice of Citizens

MCGM 24x7 app

Huge craters like this one are a common sight on the road opposite Bandra Railway Colony; (Inset) Mirror’s report on Wednesday

Developers of the Voice of Citizen, which was used by the BMC from 2011to 2015, say the civic body has not responded to their offer.When it comes to potholes, the BMC appears to be in no mood to listen to the “voice of citizens”.A popular pothole-tracking portal called Voice of Citizen, which was launched with much fanfare in 2011 but abruptly stopped functioning in 2015 after the BMC refused to renew the software operator’s contractor, is now being offered for free to the civic body. But the BMC, which is struggling to tackle the pothole menace across the city with its own app — MCGM 24X7 — hardly being of any use as reported by Mirror on Wednesday, isn’t keen on using it.“We offered the software for free to the BMC. We have conveyed it in writing to the civic authorities a long time ago, but they have not responded yet. The BMC has shown no interest is using our software, where was very successful and loved by citizens,” said Shantanu Kulkarni, a Pune-based software developer whose firm — Probitysoft Pvt Ltd — had developed the Voice of Citizen.The citizen-friendly software, which was also operated by Probitysoft, allowed the citizens to upload photos of potholes and geo-tag them after which a civic road engineer got the contractor concerned to fix them within 48 hours. If the contractor defaulted, the engineer faced the music. The software also allowed BMC to monitor roadworks through its live-works component, and track trenching activities when footpaths are dug up. In 2012, the BMC had even received an award from a Bangalorebased non-profit organisation for “Citizenship and Democracy”, thanks to the online potholetracking software.“I don’t want to comment on the BMC’s app, but ours was a dedicated portal for only potholes. It was very user-friendly and brought in a lot of transparency, since each pothole was assigned to a particular engineer. All the other agencies such as the, MSRDC and(roads) were also included in the portal,” Kulkarni said. He added that he had written to the BMC’s roads department earlier this year, offering the software for free.“We didn’t do this for money. The BMC can use this software and track potholes better. It will ultimately help the civic body in filling up potholes and tracking them better. Since the software covers other agencies too, it will be able to pinpoint whether the cratered roads are owned by the PWD or the MMRDA. Right now, the BMC is also facing flak for potholes on roads that are not maintained by it,” Kulkarni explained.Asked about the, BMC officials said that since they had developed their own app, they didn’t want to use a super-set app for potholes. “Theis functional and will be improved,” said an official.Another official said that the civic body did float a tender for procuring a pothole-tracking software, but only one bidder expressed interest.On Wednesday, Mumbai Mirror reported how two of its reporters had a harrowing time submitting complaints about potholes via the BMC’s much-touted app — MCGM 24x7.Additional Municipal Commissioner (roads) Vijay Singhal had promised to look into the grievances. “We will review the app and if there are any technical glitches, we will get them resolved. I have already asked the IT department to upgrade all our software portals,” Singhal had said.Congress corporator Ravi Raja said that the BMC must take up the free software offer, as it is very popular. “It (the app) allows citizens to take part in civic works. The civic body should ensure that the system is up and running. It spends so much money on unnecessary stuff but is reluctant to use this software that is available for free,” Raja added.In May 2015, the Bombay High Court, while pronouncing an order in a suo motu PIL taken up by it in 2013, had spoken about the plight of motorists and pedestrians given the city’s “pathetic” roads. The HC had stated that the BMC should provide a mechanism for citizens to complain about poor roads through mails and photos at designated centres, toll-free numbers, dedicated websites and SMS services throughout the year.