Nightmare on pockmarked roads

AURANGABAD: Padamshri Desai is bed-ridden with multiple fractures ever since she met with an accident on the 700-metre Chanakyapuri road connecting Shahnoormiyan Durga and Sutgirni Chowk.
The 52-year-old school teacher was riding a two-wheeler to the work place in Chanakyapuri when she lost balance negotiating a 5-ft dug-up road. She broke her right leg, for which she had to undergo a surgery and doctors have made it clear that she cannot walk for quite a few months.Desai squarely blames the bad condition of the roads in the city for her plight.
After the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court directed the civic body to fill all potholes in the city by September 30, 2016, the civic officials filled the road with large stones. Pedestrians and motorists complain that this has made the stretch all the more vulnerable.
"On my way to school, I had dodged quite a few potholes when my bike moved over the huge ditch and skidded. Now with the surgery and a rod inserted in my leg, the doctor has asked me not to move for at least two months. I fear that I may have to live with the pain throughout my life," Desai said.
Komal Mehrotra, another teacher of the school, said, "We are under constant stress to reach the school on time because of the pathetic road condition. It's a challenge manoeuvring the potholes and the huge ditch."
The senior administrative officer of the school, Roshanlal Chahal, said around 4,000 students and 200 teaching and non-teaching staffers have been complaining about the problem for eight months.
The school has made many representations to the civic body to repair the road, but in vain. The recent rain has only worsened the situation, he said.
The ditch on the stretch has not only narrowed down the road by more than 70%, but has been causing inconvenience to a huge number of people visiting the school in buses, rickshaws, two-wheelers and bicycles. Many parents are choosing to pick and drop their children to school personally to avert any risk. "Earlier, my child used to ride a bicycle to the school. But not any more," said Swati Deshpande, a parent.
Potholes on the ridden across the city have been a major problem across the city with the activists accusing the civic administration and the contractors of doing a shoddy repair job.
Aurangabad Municipal Corporation executive engineer Afsar Siddique said, "We are upgrading the drainage system under the Centre's Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns. As part of it, we had dug the road for about 350m to install a new sewage pipeline on this route. We have started the restoration work following the installation of the sewage pipeline."