Pothole Trouble in India

[pic 1]IRSC CASE STUDY SYNOPSIS

Potholes: Apathy of Roads

[pic 2]

ARTI PATERIYA

AJAI RAO RAGOTHAMAN

HARISH SUDHARSAN K.V.

SREEJIT RAMAKUMAR

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, BANGALORE

Case summary

From the case, we can deduce that potholes and waterlogging are amongst the biggest reasons for road accident deaths in India. Primary reasons for potholes are the poor quality of road construction and maintenance, for which nobody is held accountable in most cases. Delhi FIR data indicates that there were no accidents due to potholes; however, the ground realities suggest the contrary. Instead of registering the cases against erring agencies for inaction, the cases are entered against the drivers while trying to avoid these potholes, since identifying causal agent for the potholes are difficult. Two-wheeler drivers aged 15-34 years are most affected (refer figure 2b).

 Moreover, if faults are found, the penalties are meagre for the responsible agency and do not deter them from subverting construction quality and repair responsibility. Shoddy repair work and half-baked road restorations add to the woes, causing the formation of more potholes.

 Delay in complaint resolution is another problem. For instance, PWD Delhi receives about 50 complaints per day during monsoon (refer figure 2d); but it has not been able to address the complaints promptly. Additionally, experts have confirmed that poor road layout, quality of bitumen, road laying techniques, poor drainage and overloaded vehicles are adding to the pothole formation. Also, road restoration initiatives run behind schedule and the efforts are uncoordinated owning to the multiplicity of agencies (refer figure 1).