India must rise out of the potholes

Potholes have turned out to be a major cause of road accidents and a number of deaths have been reported recently after people lost control of their vehicles while navigating them. Two days ago, a death was reported from Bengaluru, but cities across the country have seen accidents and deaths caused by potholes. Highways, which are considered to be better maintained, are also not free of gaping potholes. According to government data, potholes claimed, on average, 2,300 lives annually across the country during the five years from 2016 to 2020. The situation could only have worsened now because the pandemic has affected the repair and maintenance work on roads in the last two years. Increasing vehicular traffic and rains deteriorate the condition of roads. The patchwork done to fill the potholes does not last beyond the next shower and the potholes are soon ready for the next accident. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), about 5% of the deaths on roads are due to potholes or open manholes.

The reasons for the proliferation of potholes are poor road construction, lack of timely and effective repair and maintenance, and indifference and callousness on the part of authorities, including politicians and officials, in taking preventive and remedial action. Inferior quality material is used and unscientific road-laying techniques are employed by contractors to cut corners. Politicians and officials are complicit in the cheating exercise that leaves the public exchequer poorer and robs people of their life and limb. It is a part of the general apathy and neglect that marks civic administration in all respects. Such abdication of responsibility is criminal because people are killed because of it, and so the nexus that causes it should be treated as a criminal conspiracy.

Courts have taken up the problem of potholes in various states and cities, sometimes suo moto or on the basis of PILs and specific petitions demanding compensation for victims and punishment for erring contractors and officials. The Karnataka High Court recently took up the matter and made adverse comments about the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) about it. The court also warned of contempt action if the BBMP failed to take steps to address the problem. But potholes still exist as death traps on all roads. They are the reality on roads in other parts of the state and the country, too. Only if roads are constructed with good material and maintained properly will they remain free of potholes and in good condition. Residents’ associations and other citizens’ bodies should keep a watch on roads and their maintenance because it is the common people who have to use these roads and it is their money that leaks through the potholes.