The complaint redressal portal to highlight potholed stretches of the highway was launched in Maharashtra recently. It is under the testing phase currently. It may be noted that Nagpur division registered 1,403 complaints, while Pune division’s five districts registered 1,163 complaints.
The active portal aimed to help citizens register complaints — from potholes to bad stretches and no roads — as they travelled along highways. The current two-month data had both citizens and officials taking note of bad roads. The PWD planned to carry out temporary repairs of the potholes with basic filling in the monsoon season. The whole stretch would be reconstructed in November.
“If there is a contractor, officials are supposed to ensure repair of the stretch in four working days after complaint registration — which is also being tracked. While some of the plaints received have been partially resolved, there are many that are completely taken care of,” said the official.
As many as 4,511 complaints have been registered in these two months for the entire state. Around 3,119 have been completely addressed, while 1,386 complaints have to be attended to.
In Pune region (five districts), Pune and Kolhapur had maximum complaints with 278 and 455 respectively.
A frequent traveller to Bhor, Manisha Salunke, said she had not tried using the portal or app, but some stretches of the state highways badly needed repair.
Those travelling to Raigad along the Mulshi stretch also said that while part of the highway had been redone, there are stretches with no roads and the entire place was just dug up. Smita Kolhe, who recently visited Raigad, said many were touched up, but the dug stretches needed immediate attention. Ved Jain, who often travelled to Nagpur, said, “The works should have commenced earlier in the year.”
