PWD to concretise crater-ridden roads

Mumbai: The public works department (PWD) has assured that the stretch between Sion and Panvel which has a history of huge traffic snarls due to potholes will be concretised within two months. While PWD officials claimed that potholes on the stretch had been filled, commuters felt otherwise. They claimed that it took them nearly two and half hours to cover distance of 39 kms from Navi Mumbai to Sion due to pothole ridden roads. A PWD officer said that potholes have occurred at Vashi, Turbhe, CBD Belapur, Kopra and Taloja Junction.

“Due to heavy rainfall, the potholes have occured mostly on the four kilometre road which was constructed using asphalt, also known as bitumen. These stretch are in small patches which is situated over bridges and under passages,” the official added. The vehicular traffics are also hit due to the work undertaken by Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation near CBD Belapur flyover, he said.   

An engineer of the PWD department, who has been monitoring the work of filling potholes between Sion and Panvel, claimed that if there is no rainfall in the next three days, all the potholes will be filled with bitumen.  

Officials said, `70 crore has been approved for the concretisation work.  

More than 2.4 lakh motorists use the Sion-Panvel highway, which connects to Pune, Bengaluru, the Konkan and Goa, everyday.

Manoj Saunik, principal secretary of PWD, said, “We will concretise the four kilometre stretch to solve the problem permanently. The process will take two months time.”     

Amitesh Kumar, joint commissioner of police (Traffic) said, “We have deployed traffic police on junctions and places where there were traffic snarls considering the weekender rush. The stretch towards Sion-Panvel highway too was under the scanner to get rid of traffic problems. However, despite the efforts, the traffic remained slow moving.”