Politician-contractor nexus to blame for potholes: Raj

MNS chief Raj Thackeray on Monday blamed the nexus between local politicians and contractors for Mumbai's poor track record in pothole repairs.

According to Thackeray, because of this link, errant contractors are repeatedly awarded road contracts. The party chief demanded that with the data compiled through BMC's pothole tracking software www.voiceofcitizen.com, blacklisted contractors should be kept out of the tendering process this year.

"Despite their bad track record, the same contractors are repeatedly awarded tenders. On the basis of the information obtained from this new pothole tracking software, the BMC should blacklist the contractors," said Thackeray.

Citing the example of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, Thackeray said big ticket infrastructure companies (which incidentally the civic body is trying to woo this year for road contracts) refuse to construct roads in the city due to local corruption.

"For the last 10 years, not a single pothole has been reported on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. How is it that only in Mumbai we have such a problem? I spoke to the contractors and other big infrastructure contractors such as Gammon India and Larsen & Toubro. They said they do not want to work on the city roads because of dirty lower-level politics," said Thackeray.

He said he will discuss the issue with the CM soon.

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