Monsoon has arrived in Kerala and is just probably 10 days away from Mumbai. The BMC is looking for a firm that can run its pothole tracking system from June 1 to October 31. The application will allow citizens to register pothole complaints on their smartphones by simply logging in. It will also help civic engineers identify the potholes and get them filled in time.
The BMC undertook concretisation of all city roads to make them pothole-free. However, only 25% concreting has been completed, defeating the pre-monsoon mission. Hence, citizens will surely have to suffer bumpy rides leading to traffic snarls this monsoon as well. To avoid this inconvenience, the civic body has nominated one sub-engineer for each of the 227 civic electoral wards to ensure that all pothole-related complaints are attended on time.
The BMC receives pothole-related complaints from citizens, social media and local representatives. It also has its own pothole tracking system on which the citizens can upload and send pictures. Voice of Citizen was launched in website-only form in 2011 but was shut down in 2015 despite its popularity. The BMC later issued an app called MCGM 24X7 to allow residents to geotag potholes, but it is not considered user-friendly.
The system was launched with new features to make it more transparent and enable real-time updates. It is being used by all engineers of wards concerned and the central roads department.
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Citizens can download an android-based application on their mobile phone and report potholes by clicking a photograph using the app. Engineers detect the potholes through GPS location and ensure filling them within 48 hours. One contractor for each of the seven zones has been appointed to fill the potholes with mastic asphalt, which was found to be useful last year.
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