Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): There seems to be no end in sight to the battered roads in the old areas of Bhopal, which witness a daily footfall of nearly 5 lakh commuters. With numerous business establishments and government hospitals, the area sees a large number of people commuting on these pothole-ridden roads daily. However, the district administration has turned a blind eye to the tattered roads in the old city areas, where traffic snarls and accidents are a routine occurrence.
According to the residents of the old city areas, the situation has been the same for them for decades. One resident remarked that it is difficult to ascertain whether the potholes have surfaced on the roads, or the roads have made their way to the potholes. Like every other year, immense inconvenience is caused to commuters, especially during the monsoon season. Even though the roads are constructed every year, they give in after merely three heavy rain spells.
Perpetual pothole crisis
Notably, almost a year and a half ago, the roads in the old city areas had been constructed at a cost of nearly Rs 70 crore, which reverted to the same, battered condition merely within six months. †Some of these areas include the road connecting JP Nagar to DIG bungalow, Alpana trijunction road, where water puddles often surface during monsoon, and the Karond vegetable market road, where not only commuting on vehicles, but also walking is a nightmare, as the craters are ubiquitous there.
Battered road causing back-aches, cervical pain
Mohammad Shazeen, a resident of Bhanpur, who has his real-estate office in Karond, told Free Press that he commutes to the office on his bike. As he has to grapple with the battered road daily, †he has ended up developing back aches, said Shazeen. Similar was the ordeal of Pratibha Tiwari, a college student, who travels to Chandanpura from Karond daily to attend her college.
The student said she has been reeling with cervical pain due to frequent commute on the pothole-ridden roads of the area. Several other residents of localities such as Shahjehanabad and Jehangirabad told Free Press that traffic snarls are so intense in the areas during the peak hours, that sometimes they prefer to walk their way up to a certain distance for some minor work.
"The battered roads in the old areas of the city shall be repaired after monsoon season gets over," Ranveer Singh Additional Commissioner, BMC
MoS writes to PWD minister for road repair; Damoh-Katangi-Jabalpur road in bad shape
Minister of State (Independent Charge) Dharmendra Singh Lodhi has written a letter to public works department minister Rakesh Singh, requesting him to repair Damoh Katangi Jabalpur state highway route.
The minister said that there are big craters on Damoh Nohta Gubra Singrampur road of Damoh Kantangi Jabalpur State Highway. The pothole riddled road is causing huge inconvenience to commuters, and has become accident prone . The MoS requested the PWD Minister to repair the road at the earliest.††
