Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) engineers from the roads department will have to pay Rs1000 per pothole per day until the pothole is filled if they assign the work to different departments in a bid to buy contractors more time. Until now, the contractors carrying out repairs and pothole-filling would be fined if they failed to fill potholes within a stipulated time period.

The decision came after Sitaram Kunte, municipal commissioner, started taking an interest in the pothole repairs work. “Ever since the municipal commissioner has asked for Mumbai roads to be in better shape during the monsoon, Aseem Gupta, additional municipal commissioner, has also stepped up to the occasion,” said a senior civic official. According to records, there are more than 10,000 potholes in the city.

“Engineers assign the pothole repairing work to different departments under various pretenses. This helps the contractor get more time to complete his earlier job and the list of pending work is erased. Meanwhile, the request for pothole repairs is shuttled between different departments and eventually comes back to roads department,” said an engineer of the roads department, who added that from now on, if any engineer makes such “mistakes” more than five times, they will have to shell out money.

Presently, the contractor is fined if he does not repair and fill the potholes within 48 hours. However, the BMC has extended the time limit to four days, instead of two. “The period has been extended for contractors because they are running short of material as of now. The orders are being placed and the material is expected shortly,” said an engineer from the roads department.According to sources, Kunte has been visiting the wards and meeting contractors and engineers from the roads department to discuss the issue. “The commissioner has asked the officials to take cognisance of all kinds of potholes, and he also wants better coordination between the officials and concerned departments with the contractors and labourers who are on ground, repairing the roads,” said a civic official.

Sources added that the municipal commissioner visited the A ward and the K-West ward to meet the contractors and the team handling the pothole-filling work. “He spent time understanding the mechanism and how the civic officials assign the job to contractors and get the work done”, sources added.