BMC plans to make pothole repairs more transparent

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is planning to go tech savvy this monsoon by using the pothole tracking system, which will help them ascertain how much money is going to be spent on each pothole.

This will bring in transparency in the way the BMC tracks potholes.The Rs-57 lakh pothole tracking system, inaugurated last monsoon, is expected to be in use by the end of this week. The system will be used by BMC employees to assess various complaints from citizens on falling of trees, landslides, unclear garbage bins, stolen manhole covers, overflowing gutters and flooding.u00a0

These complaints will then be sent to the different BMC departments concerned. New features in the system will allow the BMC to assess how much money is being spent on repairing potholes across the city. Citizens can register complaints of potholes not only in the form of photographs but also videos.

The pothole tracking system, inaugurated last monsoon, is expected to be in use by the end of this week. File pic

Additional municipal commissioner Aseem Gupta, who is in charge of the roads department, said, "We have decided to put up the Rs 59 crore budget and divide it among the 24 wards on the basis of the length of the roads each ward has. Every repair work on a pothole when registered will automatically deduct money from the budget and when the budget allotted is used over 90%,an alert will be displayed and the funds will be allocated immediately. This is one of the changes the pothole tracking system will have this year along with the the availability to upload videos."