In past 5 yrs, rain levels up by 30%, money spent on road repairs by 200%

While the civic body blames the rainfall pattern in Mumbai as being the biggest reason behind potholed roads in the city, a look at rainfall data and the amount spent on repairs show that while the total rainfall received has increased by around 30 per cent over the past five years, the money spent on repairs has seen a 200 per cent jump during the same time. Moreover, the BMC has spent close to Rs 4, 500 crore on building new asphalt and concrete roads across the city during this period.

An official from the roads department, requesting anonymity, said while the civic body stopped counting the number of potholes or the number of bad stretches, the amount spent on repairs is indicative of the number of potholes. "The amount has increased from Rs 19.07 crore during 2006-07 to Rs 65.38 crore in 2011-12, while the total season rainfall was 2,368 mm in 2006 and around 3,019 mm in 2011. This means that while rainfall has not increased drastically, the number of bad stretches has," said the official.

While 2009 saw the least rainfall, the amount spent on repairs was surprisingly the highest during this period. "2009 had an inconsistent monsoon but had a few days when the rainfall was very heavy due to which the condition of roads became very bad. Moreover, we had to settle a number of pending bills during this period because of which the amount spent on repairs was very high during that year," he added.

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