Safety posers as potholes riddle NH4 stretch from Pune to Satara

PUNE: If you’re not careful, a trip to the neighbouring Satara district can give you a good jolt.
The 140km stretch of the Mumbai-Bengaluru highway, which connects the city to Satara, is riddled with potholes at regular intervals. For commuters, it is especially dangerous at night.

In the past few weeks, the state highway patrol (SHP) received a deluge of complaints.“We have written to the private contractor and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to repair and maintain the road properly. Several vehicles have developed tyre punctures and many other issues,” SHP superintendent of police Milind Mohite told TOI.
NHAI blamed the deplorable condition of the road on the recent, incessant monsoon that has battered this part of the state. “Due to the excessive and incessant rainfall over the past fortnight, the road has developed several potholes at multiple locations,” a senior NHAI official, requesting anonymity, said.
On a normal day, a one-sided trip takes two-and-a-half hours. But now, it takes at least four hours — five if there’s heavy traffic on the weekends.
Thousands of industrial vehicles, daily travellers and tourists take the key highway connecting the capitals of the neighbouring states — Mumbai and Bengaluru.
NHAI’s Pune division recently conducted a survey of the problematic stretch to take corrective measures. “We have already identified at least four spots where the pothole density is high,” the NHAI official said.
The authority has awarded the road repair and maintenance contract to a private company, which has deployed teams to repair the stretch, “Proper tarring work will be initiated once the rains reduce,” the official said.
D K Singh, project manager of the Pune-Satara section, told TOI that 10 teams have already been pressed into action to repair the road. “On an average, our teams repair 150-200 potholes a day. This year the rainfall was heavy and so, potholes developed at many locations,” he said.
Singh placed a part of the blame on restaurants and petrol pumps that dot the margins of the highway. “Their owners have broken the medians to provide illegal access to their customers. Because of this, excessive rainwater accumulates on the road, eroding the surface and causing potholes,” Singh explained.
“We have sent them numerous notices, but to no avail,” Singh said, adding it was the responsibility of the state highway police and local authorities to act against the violators.
NHAI authorities said local residents closed drainage lines at many spots, which was another reason for waterlogging. “We have been unsuccessfully urging them not to do this,” another NHAI official, who was part of the survey team, added.
“There are patches where the concentration of potholes is so high, that if they are filled with rainwater, it becomes impossible to identify them. This causes many vehicles to develop problems. The authorities must address the issue at the earliest,” a regular commuter on the road said.