A Division Bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Abhay Ahuja on Monday pulled up the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for not taking “seriously” the issue of potholes on the Mumbai-Goa Highway (NH-66).
The high court was hearing a PIL filed against the time being taken by the NHAI to complete the re-construction and extension of the highway.
In the earlier hearing on October 10, the petitioner had filed an affidavit and pointed out potholes and the poor condition of NH-66. The petitioner had also submitted that due to poor condition of the road, there were casualties on the highway between Panvel and Indapur.
The high court had directed the NHAI to carry out repairs in order to prevent further casualties. The division bench had also said if any death due to poor road conditions is brought to the notice of the bench, the same will be dealt with sternly.
The NHAI filed its affidavit on November 7 wherein it said the roads are motorable. The petitioner appearing in person pointed out in its rejoinder the geotagged photographs of the potholes.
Advocate Pechkar during the hearing said, “How can they call this motorable?” The bench responded to this by saying “For them, where a motor vehicle can go is a motorable road.”
Advocate Pechkar also quoted Sudha Murthy, the Chairperson of the Infosys Foundation, and said: “Konkan is heaven. However, the roads leading to this heaven are bad.”
The court in its order stated that if the photos are to be believed, the NHAI seems to not have taken the matter seriously.
Government Pleader PP Kakade informed the court that an amount of Rs 15 crore was transferred to the forest department for the route which goes through the forest. The Public Works Department of the Maharashtra government then informed the court that work will begin shortly in the forest.
The Division Bench directed NHAI to fill the potholes between the Panvel-Indapur stretch and file the affidavit by December 23. The matter will be taken up on January 4 again.
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