Potholes on the roads in the city of Mumbai are always a problem and more so when it is the monsoons approaching. The problem has been there for decades and every year the municipal corporation promises to fix them but fails. Given the shoddy state of affairs even the Bombay High Court had intervened. In a time where everyone is accessible to smartphones and thus messaging application WhatsApp, BMC decided to start helping numbers to address the grievances related to the condition of the roads.

Citizens will have to upload the photos of the potholes and give the location details. Each ward office has been provided with a WhatsApp number, which will be functional only during the monsoon season. This number will be with the ward officer who will ask the team to start work on fixing the potholes after receiving a complaint. A lot of users used Twitter as a medium to address the pothole situation but WhatsApp was more accessible and also divided ward-wise.

Given below are the ward-wise WhatsApp numbers for registering pothole complaints: 

Sr. No. Ward Whatsapp No.
1. A 8879657698
2. B 8879657724
3. C 8879657704
4. D 8879657694
5. E 8879657712
6. F/N 8879657717
7. F/S 8879657678
8. G/N 8879657683
9. G/S 8879657693
10. H/E 8879657671
11. H/W 8879657633
12. K/E 8879657651
13. K/W 8879657649
14. P/S 8879657661
15. P/N 8879657654
16. R/S 8879657656
17. R/N 8879657636
18. R/C 8879657634
19. L 8879657622
20. M/E 8879657612
21. M/W 8879657608

8879657614
22. N 8879657617

8879657615
23. S 8879657603

8879657605
24. T 8879657609

8879657611

Along with the WhatsApp facility the BMC also has its ‘MCGM 24×7’ application for pothole complaints. The citizens similar to WhatsApp have to capture the longitude and latitude of the pothole’s location and upload a photograph. There was also a pothole tracking website a few years back but that hasn't been very fruitful measure. Potholes have been responsible even for accidents in the city, sometimes seriously injuring and

In February 2018, there was a recommendation made by a judge panel of the Bombay High Court to set up a potholes grievance portal to standardise the quality of roads. "It is time-consuming to upload photos and other details in the new BMC app. Also, there is no mechanism to find out what happened to the complaints or if any action was taken," the advocate had said. They also suggested that the contractors and civic officials should be held accountable for the bad condition of roads. With monsoons about to begin soon let us see how effectively the corporation fixes the pothole situation and also if WhatsApp complaints are acted upon.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 21, 2018 10:28 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).