To make roads safer for commuters this monsoon, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has launched a mobile application so that citizens can lodge ‘real time’ complaints of potholes on roads.
To make roads safer for commuters this monsoon, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has launched a mobile application so that citizens can lodge ‘real time’ complaints of potholes on roads. However, this application requires the complainant to be on the spot where the pothole is, before clicking a photograph and uploading it, as the app captures the latitudinal and longitudinal limits of the pothole to register its exact address.
However, the flipside of the application is that citizens cannot take photographs offline and manually punch in the address, thus limiting the registration of complaints as the user needs access to internet connection while he is at the spot of the pothole. For example, if the user sits in a room and uploads an old photo, it will register the location of the room.
Additional municipal commissioner Sanjay Deshmukh said, “The user has to be at the spot of the pothole, when he uploads the photo, so that the accurate address of the pothole can be registered through the location of the mobile device. This is the only way we can cut down on hoax complaints and establish the authenticity of the complaint.”
Once the complaint is registered it will automatically be transferred to the respective ward’s engineer. It will be addressed between 24 hours and 48 hours. It is the ward’s responsibility to ensure that the work is completed on time. A photograph of the repaired area will be uploaded by the BMC against the complainant’s number, for the user to view.
This app will go live from June 1, and can be downloaded from an android phone or an iPhone. The BMC is yet to finalise a name for the application.
