1,000-odd complaints about potholes in last week alone, says BMC

With the civic body repeatedly proven ineffectual in filling potholes, state body releases list of precise instructions on how to fill them

With the BMC struggling to get its pothole-filling act right for years, the government appointed Standing Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) has finally decided to give the civic body a list of precise instructions on how to fill them. What's more, with the SOP going online, citizens, too, can keep an eye on the procedure.

As per STAC's standard operation procedure (SOP) that was issued last week, BMC officials will now be using materials such as emulsion, wet mix, granular sub-base and lime powder. Lime power, which helps keep the mix stable, was not compulsory earlier, sources said. mid-day has a copy of the SOP circular.

One of the officials from the road department, not willing to be named, said, "The decision to include emulsion and granular sub-base along with lime powder was taken after the Standing Technical Advisory Committee meeting was concluded earlier this month. Also, now, with the rain making a comeback, the issue of potholes is to be taken seriously. This circular will also be uploaded on the website so that citizens, too, can keep a vigil on the repair work."

Workers filling up a pothole haphazardly on the WEH. File pics

The city has been receiving incessant rainfall over the last 10 days which is likely to continue for another few days. Owing to this, the civic body has again started to receive complaints about potholes from across the city. In the last week alone, about 1,000-odd complaints were received by the civic body, but because of the lack of BMC staff on the ground due to Election Duty and now because of Diwali vacation, many roads are yet to be repaired. mid-day tried to reach out to additional municipal commissioner V Singhal, but he remained unavailable.

How to fill potholes: STAC

. First identify the surface
. Make all edges of the potholes vertical and clean the surface of all loose material
. Apply an emulsion to the pothole surface, and top it by a cold mix of 25 mm thickness. If the pothole is deeper than 50 mm then add layers of wet mix and granular sub-base and then the coldmix over it
. Compact all these materials either by a hand tamper (dhumas) or by mechanical means
. Finally, spray lime powder on this surface to achieve impermeability.

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