PMC’s ‘Bharati Pathak’ working 24/7, attends to 848 pothole-related complaints

PUNE Sayyed Javed is polite and listens to your complaint patiently, taking down every detail; he is one of the Pune Municipal Corporation’s employees ‘on duty’ at the newly-formed ‘Bharari Pathak’ to attend to Punekars’ complaints regarding potholes in the city. “In the past two days, I have received 63 calls that I have immediately relayed to the engineers of the respective wards,” he informs.

The ‘Bharati Pathak’ helmed by Sahabrao Dandge, superintending engineer – road department, PMC; has dedicated officials working in three shifts namely 8am to 4pm, 4pm to 12am and 12am to 8am, and looking after the maintenance and repairs of the city’s potholes and broken drainage chambers. The pathak has now added WhatsApp and email to their complaints’ receiving centre.

“We are working round-the-clock to attend to the complaints received from the residents of Pune, via the PMC portal, Aaple Sarkar, PMC cares, WhatsApp and the landline. The new addition is the WhatsApp which has become the fastest way to relay a message with photographs and area details. The complaints are passed on to the respective area engineers of our pathak who attend to them immediately,” says Dandge.

“We are taking all kinds of precautions and treating every message as an emergency, and attending to main roads on a priority basis. We are using cold mix, emulsion drum, jet patcher and chemical concrete to work fast on the potholes,” he says.

According to the PMC road department, 90% of the potholes in the city have been attended to and patched up between July 15 and July 18, 2022.