Shiv Sena

Mumbai

south Mumbai

Deepak Thakur

general

Save Mumbai from potholes! 01:57

Five corporators, including one from, junk their cars and take a train from Goregaon to CSMT to avoid’s crater-riddled and jammed roadsIf this gives you any solace while you’re on your way to work, look at that picture again. This is a group of five corporators, all from Goregaon, who junked their cars for a Harbour line train to reach the BMC headquarters in, because the city’s pothole-riddled roads have made the drive from the suburb excruciatingly long.BJP corporators(Ward No. 50), Rajul Desai (Ward No. 56), Srikala Pillai (Ward No. 57) and Sandeep Patel (Ward No. 58), along with Shiv Sena corporator Swapnil Tembwalkar (Ward No. 51) boarded a 2 pm train from Goregaon to CST on Thursday to attend the BMC’sbody meeting, and said this could well be their preferred mode of transport every time they have to be in South Mumbai.Pillai said, “It takes 45 minutes to just cross the stretch from Mega Mall to Vasant Galaxy in Goregaon in a car, whereas one can reach CST in that time by train. Potholes are a major problem and I have complained to the BMC, whose officials filled those with cold mix. However, the potholes resurfaced after merely a week.”Patel was similarly scathing of BMC’s ways of dealing with bad roads, saying, “Every time a new IAS officer takes over, the city gets a new technique to repair roads. “The cold mix technology has failed, and citizens hold us (corporators) responsible for bad roads,” he said.While the fellow corporators blasted the Sena-run BMC for the potholes mess, Tembwalkar said he didn’t want to comment on the ‘controversial potholes issue’ and chose to blame the Metro construction for the mess.“Everyone knows about Mumbai’s traffic and now the Metro construction is also on. I don’t wish to comment on the condition of roads and as far as boarding the train is concerned, it’s because I will reach CSMT within an hour,” he said.The BMC corporators boarding a local train is just another example of how even those calling the shots in the civic body having realised that the problem of bad roads is probably beyond repair. Over the past several weeks, Mumbai Mirror has been raising the issue of pothole-riddled roads and the citizens are suffering due to these.Rajul Desai agreed that the government needed to come up with lasting solutions. “We know the ground realities and problems faced by citizens due to bad roads. But it is wrong to say there are no solutions. We have our government in the state and at the Centre and we will resolve these issues,” Desai said.Meanwhile, Pillai indicated that she has junked her car, at least till the rains are around. “I have already bought a train pass,” she said.