Get well soon, write activists in postcards sent to BMC on pothole complaints

Mumbai Angry with the continuing pothole menace in Mumbai, a group of citizens have started a postcard campaign to grab the attention of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in the old-school way.

Citizen-activists, mainly from the western suburbs, have started sending postcards to the office of municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, with the message ‘Get Well Soon’ written along with the details of their pothole-related complaints. They said that the primary objective of the campaign is to grab the attention of the administration and get them to work.

Godfrey Pimenta, an activist from Andheri, who initiated this campaign, said that every year the BMC comes up with new ideas like starting telephone hotlines, WhatsApp chatbots and mobile applications to address the pothole issues. However, potholes still remain a problem.

“Even after we lodge complaints using the given numbers, they remain unanswered and unattended for several days. Therefore, we have chosen to send postcards, because this will be physically handed over to them, which will compel them to take note of the situation,” said Pimenta.

Pimenta said that the campaign was launched on Saturday (July 9) and between Saturday and Sunday (July 10), more than 48 postcards have been sent in bulk from the Marol post office and Sahar post office. Pimenta said that the primary objective of writing ‘Get Well Soon’ is to grab the administration’s attention.

“Being the sole planning authority of the city, BMC has failed to solve the pothole menace, so we are writing ‘Get Well Soon’ in the postcards to shame them so that they act fast,” Pimenta added.

Pimenta said that on Sunday morning, volunteers from his organisation had gone to the ‘Save Aarey’ protest and handed blank postcards to the protesting members over there.

Another citizen, Dayanand Joshi (57), who is a captain in Vietnam Airlines and resides in Gokuldham at Goregaon (East), said that he has sent four postcards during the weekend from the Gokuldham Post office.

“It has been raining here for just two weeks and it has managed to expose the shoddy road infrastructure. The commute time has also increased by three times and the crater-sized potholes are also life threatening for those who are riding on two-wheelers,” said Joshi.

“We are circulating the information about our movement on social media and urging people to send postcards. They can send it at their individual capacity or may be able to hand it over to us for bulk posting as well,” Joshi added.

Brian Perreira (64), a retired banker and a Marol resident, said that travelling in auto rickshaws during monsoon is a serious challenge for senior-citizens.

“Due to the potholes, many senior citizens develop spine and hip issues. Also, the potholes harm the suspension of the cars and motorcycles and the process of repairing them is very expensive,” said Perreira.

Meanwhile, civic officials from the roads department maintained that concretising the roads is the only option to get rid of potholes.

“Most of the roads in western suburbs including the Western Express Highway (WEH) is not with BMC but with Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA). There are several roads in the suburbs where we see potholes because metro works and there has been no maintenance done recently. The responsibility of these roads are also with MMRDA. Still, whenever we get a complaint, we alert the ward office to fill the pothole in 24 hours,” said an official from the roads department.

“The number of potholes that we see in the city is much less than in the suburbs. This is because most of the roads over there are concretised. We are working on concretising all the roads of Mumbai under BMC’s jurisdiction and the problem could only be solved in entirety after concretisation is done,” said the official.