Narendra Modi has a stadium named after him. Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis got his name etched on a potholed road in Mumbai on Sunday, courtesy the city Congress’ youth wing.
Alleging inefficiency of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in providing pothole-free roads, the Mumbai Youth Congress on Sunday launched a protest by naming a pothole-filled road on a part of Swami Vivekananda Road in Jogeshwari (West) locality after Fadnavis and called out what it described as years of neglect and mismanagement.
The Youth Congress protesting in front of large potholes (Pic: Sourced by the correspondent)
The protestors accused the state government of failing to deliver on repeated promises of making Mumbai pothole-free, despite massive spending on road projects.
Ex-Working President of the Mumbai Youth Congress and social activist Sufiyan Haider shared a video on X showing potholes and took a direct swipe at CM Fadnavis.
“The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is Asia’s richest civic body. Rs. 74,000crore is the budget only for roads. Result? Potholes, accidents & deaths. We ‘inaugurated’ this road in the name of CM Devendra Fadnavis ji — a true mirror of his governance,” Haider wrote.
Haider also pointed out that for the last four years,the BMC elections have been pending, leaving all civic power in the hands of the chief minister.
“Even after such a huge budget, we are met with potholes in every monsoon. For the last four years, we do not have elected corporators to represent us in the BMC and it is being directly ruled by the CM,” he said.
According to him, the BMC’s annual budget stands at Rs 74,000 crore, with Rs3,000 crore earmarked for roads, Rs 4,000 crore for bridges, and around Rs 50 lakh set aside for pothole repairs in every ward. Yet, the situation of Mumbai’s roads remains dire.
One X user commented on Haider’s post on X saying, “Rename all the roads where there are potholes.” Another wrote, “Good protest like this to get the government to fix things. So people can say bad Devendra Fadnavis Marg.”
The Bombay High Court last week also took a serious view of accidents linked to potholes, asking the state government to consider framing a compensation policy for victims and their families.
A bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Sandesh Patil said contractors must be held accountable and penalties should be recovered from civic officers responsible.
“Each one of you is passing the buck,” the court told counsels for agencies and authorities responsible for road maintenance.
BMC counsel Anil Sakhare told the bench that 688 potholes remain to be repaired under its jurisdiction. He claimed the civic body had acted on 15,526 complaints from citizens, while its junior engineers had detected 11,808 potholes across the city and suburbs, usually fixing them within 48 hours.
The judges, however, expressed dissatisfaction. They questioned why newly constructed roads were repeatedly developing potholes. “If a pothole fills with water, a person may not see it,” the bench observed.
The court was informed that six people had died this monsoon due to pothole-related incidents in Mumbai and the wider metropolitan region, three in Bhiwandi-Nizampur and one each in Thane, Kalyan, and Mumbai.
The judges also questioned why potholes persist in some areas while stretches such as outside the High Court remain unaffected. “Why should roads constructed by you develop potholes in one rain? What action have you taken against the contractors?” the bench asked.
In June, the BMC had rolled out its ‘Pothole QuickFix’ app and a dedicated WhatsApp service to simplify complaint registration and accelerate repairs.
The new app replaced the earlier ‘My BMC Pothole Fixit’ app, aiming to reduce the number of steps required to file complaints.
Deputy chief minister and former Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde had announced in June the Mahayuti government of which the BJP, Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party are partners are giving Mumbai an “image makeover” and the financial capital of the country will get pothole free roads in 18 months.
Similar grim situation in Bengaluru too
Bengaluru too has been reeling under the pothole crisis but days of dire situations have now fanned the flames of humour.
A Canadian vlogger put spotlight on Bengaluru's civic issues with a new viral video that creatively depicts navigating the city's pothole-riddled streets as a video game. The video shows a person on a bike earning points for successfully maneuvering around potholes.
This comes after a previous post by the same vlogger about garbage-filled footpaths also gained widespread attention. The video description states how a person "is trying to navigate through the potholes and then ends up earning some points in the process."
Caleb Friesen who named his game Pothole Patrol took to X and shared his highest score of encountering potholes at Bengaluru’s Sarjapur Road.
“I lived on Sarjapur Road for multiple years. met multiple small accidents due to potholes + silt/sand between 2018 and 2023. always kept dettol and bandages in my backpack”, he wrote.