Rains have gone but potholes remain at Ghodbunder

Mumbai: Durgesh Gawde, a resident of Mira Road, whose one-way commute to the office would take around 60 to 90 minutes has now gone up to 120 to 150 minutes, thanks to uneven, pothole-ridden stretches in the Ghodbunder-Thane section which is causing major delays.

The Ghodbunder Thane section is a key road connecting the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway on the Mira Bhayander side and connecting Mumbai Agra Highway on the Thane side. Heavy commercial vehicles also move through this road along with car traffic connecting Thane city to the Western suburbs of Mumbai.

Gawde, who is a civil engineer and works at an office in Navi Mumbai, said, “There are multiple issues on the Ghodbunder road. At the Fountain Hotel junction, the roads were taken up for concretisation but left halfway through a year due to some pending pipe-laying works. A little ahead, the road near the Gaimukh area is so bad that heavy commercial vehicles break down frequently. It is now taking two and half hours sometimes to reach the office just due to the poor road.”

The Public Works Department (PWD), which is responsible for maintaining this road, said the department has floated a tender for improvement but is awaiting permission to start work. An official from PWD, Thane, said the issue is due to road/land suppression over a period of time causing uneven roads.

“A total of nearly three lakh metric tonnes of vehicles pass through this road. The geography of the road is causing the land to be suppressed. We have floated the tender to repair the whole patch but that will take some time since it is forest land and permission from the forest department is needed.”

The officer added that the road is an important connectivity between the two highways. “Currently we are only undertaking temporary repairs. To repair certain patches, we need permission from the traffic department, which is not easy since it is an important road. A two-hour work sometimes takes four or five hours because the road is always busy.” he added.

Dr Veena Kawalkar, who visits hospitals in Ghodbunder for consultation says that in certain sections, it doesn’t even feel like a road. “The road is like a ‘sea wave’, there is nothing even. It is the most dangerous for the two-wheelers. Driving through the area is unpredictable, you never know how many hours it will take to pass from here. It has been more than a year now, but there has been no resolution.”

Citizens have also taken to social media platform X, sharing pictures of vehicle accidents, poor-quality roads and traffic jam issues.

Celvy Rodrigues, a marketing professional and resident of Vasai said that her mother lives in Mulund and the route via Ghodbunder is the shortest. What used to take 50 minutes sometimes has now gone up to two / two and half hours. “The section of Ghodbunder Thane is so bad that sometimes people are stuck for hours. There are steep inclines on this road and heavy vehicles move on both lanes instead of just one. The heavy vehicles move slowly due to poor quality roads creating long jams behind.”