In July, 2015, 16-year-old Prakash Bilhore went to fill out a university admission type in Bhandup. However he by no means made it house. The motorbike he was travelling on hit a pothole, throwing him off. He died in hospital inside an hour.

That pothole had been dug by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Company to repair an influence cable. It was imagined to be stuffed by Could however had remained open. It was lastly stuffed after Prakash’s loss of life, claimed his household.

Months later, his father Dadarao Bilhore launched into a private campaign to repair town’s roads. Right now, the previous grocery store proprietor from Marol in Andheri (East) is called ‘Pothole Dada’, claiming to have mounted “1,500 roads” by way of his NGO Prakash Basis. Years later, because the BMC heads to the polls on January 15, he’s reiterating the identical demand that drove him to motion: pothole-free roads that don’t kill folks.

It’s a reminder of a defining failure of India’s richest municipal company, which has an annual finances exceeding Rs 70,000 crore, bigger than a number of state governments.

Regardless of spending Rs 400 crore on filling potholes in 2023 and Rs 275 crore in 2024, the craters live on. Based on experiences citing BMC’s knowledge, Mumbai recorded over 59,000 potholes in 2023. Earlier in 2022, 38,310 potholes have been reported whereas in 2021, 43,478 potholes have been reported.

Whereas figures particular to Mumbai will not be accessible on year-wise foundation, activists declare there was an increase. This comes as deaths as a result of pothole-related accidents are seeing a spike throughout the nation. Based on the Union ministry of street transport and highways, potholes killed 1,481 folks in 2021, 1,856 in 2022, 2,161 in 2023.

As civic physique elections return to town after an eight-year hole, potholes have emerged as a potent political difficulty, exposing the hole between the BMC’s huge assets and its power mismanagement.

Political blame sport

The final BMC elections have been held in 2017. Though the elected physique’s time period led to 2022, elections have been delayed by three years. Throughout this interim interval, the Maharashtra authorities has overseen civic affairs and promised to restore Mumbai’s roads inside two-and-a-half years.

Beneath a plan laid out by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in 2022, 2,121 roads masking round 700 km have been to be concretised by 2025. That work stays unfinished and is now anticipated to take a minimum of two extra years. The Bombay Excessive Courtroom too had intervened in 2022, following which the then BMC commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal ordered that each one potholes be stuffed.

The BMC’s finances tells its personal story. As per the company’s finances for 2025-26, it has allotted Rs 5,100 crore for roads and site visitors. This 12 months alone, Rs 154 crore was spent on filling potholes simply throughout the monsoon. But the previous chairman of the BMC’s standing committee, Rahul Shivale, advised Frontline in April 2025: “The BMC used to spend Rs 800 crore yearly to restore potholes. So, it determined to beat these points by concretising the roads.”

However Dadarao Bilhole insisted accidents brought on by potholes “proceed to occur”. “Protecting all of the potholes of town is a really strenuous process. As residents, we will solely achieve this a lot – the BMC must step up its efforts…I’m not saying that nothing is being achieved, however there may be nonetheless quite a bit to do.”

The Congress has launched a “chargesheet” in opposition to the BMC. Sachin Sawant, Mumbai-based Congress chief and AICC secretary, stated: “Folks have been dying on Mumbai’s roads due to potholes and patchwork repairs. The deadlines to make Mumbai pothole-free by way of concretisation have already been missed. There may be large-scale corruption within the BMC. Wherever you go in Mumbai, you will see potholes. It is a severe difficulty as a result of it’s the frequent individuals who have suffered probably the most.”

BJP chief and Kandivli MLA Atul Bhatkhalkar defended the federal government’s efforts. “When the BMC was below (now Shiv Sena-UBT chief) Uddhav Thackeray’s rule, barely 50 km of cement concrete roads have been constructed yearly. We’re engaged on this difficulty on a warfare footing, and the work will likely be accomplished throughout the subsequent 4 to 5 years. It’s now not such a significant difficulty.”

“We’ve got additionally modified tender circumstances to stop subletting of contracts. A utility hall has been mandated to stop roads from being repeatedly dug up for fuel, energy, web, and different providers. Repeated digging was a significant explanation for potholes and patchy roads.”

Shiv Sena (UBT) spokesperson Harshal Pradhan shot again: “Earlier than making such allegations, they need to have a look at themselves. Within the title of concretisation, they’re doing corruption. They’ve given contracts upfront, and nonetheless, the work will not be over. The whole metropolis is being dug up, and individuals are struggling.”

The lethal cycle

Nizam Hussain, 37, is aware of that potholes aren’t simply numbers. In August 2022, his brother Nair and sister-in-law Mantasha have been returning house to Andheri from Borivali when their motorbike hit a pothole on a Borivali flyover, Hussain stated. They fell and have been run over by a truck. Their son Hasnain was simply 4 years previous.

“The accident occurred by way of no fault of theirs. If there had been no pothole on that street that day, they might by no means have met this destiny,” Hussain advised Newslaundry.

In July 2025, 55-year-old Lalu Kamble reportedly died whereas using his scooter after he misplaced steadiness as a result of a pothole on the Juhu-Vikhroli Hyperlink Highway in Powai and was run over by a dumper. In October 2025, 19-year-old Raj Singh reportedly died in Bhiwandi’s Temghar space when his motorbike hit potholes and he was run over by a truck.

Trivankumar Karnani, a lawyer and founding father of the Mumbai North Central District Discussion board, a citizen welfare group, stated: “There may be absolute mismanagement within the civic administration…There may be zero coordination between departments throughout street concretisation works.”

Explaining why town can’t repair its potholes, Karnani stated: “In Mumbai at present, a street is concretised, and inside 15 days it’s dug up by one company to put fuel pipelines. Thirty days later, one other company digs it up once more for energy strains or fibre optics. This repeated digging is a prison waste of public cash, posing severe security dangers…Claims by politicians that street concretisation has resolved Mumbai’s pothole downside are utterly false and a gross misrepresentation of the reality.”

Karnani’s discussion board has launched a 30-point residents’ constitution highlighting civic points. “Municipal corporators should provoke prison motion in opposition to contractors for substandard work. Elected corporators ought to convene joint conferences with citizen boards and resident welfare associations earlier than any street concretisation challenge, together with the Roads Division and allied departments comparable to hydraulics, water, gardens, and businesses concerned in energy provide, fuel pipelines and telecom providers, to keep away from repeated digging.”

To ask concerning the company’s incapability to repair the issue and why official knowledge doesn’t match the variety of pothole-related deaths claimed by locals, Newslaundry reached out to BMC commissioner Bhushan Gagrani for remark. This report will likely be up to date if a response is acquired.

‘Actual motive isn’t the monsoon’

The issue reportedly extends throughout the Mumbai Metropolitan Area. Petitions in court docket, media experiences and citizen testimonies repeatedly allege crumbling roads as an element behind accidents in municipal firms that embrace BMC, Thane Municipal Company, Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Company, Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Company, Navi Mumbai Municipal Company, Ulhasnagar Municipal Company, Vasai Virar Municipal Company and Mira-Bhayander Municipal Company.

Thane’s Ghodbunder Highway has change into infamous. Between January and October 2025, 18 folks allegedly died due to pothole-related incidents on this street, as per petitions and locals quoted in media experiences.

Mushtaq Ansari, a Mahim resident and founding father of Pothole Warriors, a bunch that fills potholes throughout the MMR, alleged: “The Thane-Ghodbunder Highway has come to be generally known as a killer street. Greater than 100 folks have misplaced their lives there within the final 4 years. Yearly, the street is resurfaced utilizing poor-quality tar, which will get washed away throughout the monsoon.”

Vivek Bangale, a inventory market analyst based mostly in Juhu, stated: “Each monsoon, roads in lots of elements of Mumbai flip into craters. Annually, authorities blame heavy rainfall for the injury. However the true motive will not be the monsoon – it’s the awarding of street contracts to incompetent contractors. Hopefully, whoever wins the BMC elections this time will lastly resolve the problem of poor high quality roads.”

Ruju Thakkar, a Mumbai-based excessive court docket lawyer who’s an intervenor in a suo-motu PIL filed on potholes in 2015, stated: “I imagine good high quality roads are a elementary proper assured to us below Article 21 of the Structure of India. This has been repeatedly reiterated by the Supreme Courtroom in addition to our Bombay Excessive Courtroom.”

“Lately, in October 2025, the Bombay Excessive Courtroom has stated that if anybody dies due to dangerous roads, together with an open manhole, Rs 6 lakh should be paid to the sufferer’s household inside 6 weeks by the involved municipal company. For an harm, compensation ranges from Rs 50,000 to Rs 2.5 lakh, relying on its severity. This quantity is over and above any declare raised elsewhere. Such judicial orders are handed as a result of the manager isn’t doing its job accurately.”

As Mumbai prepares to vote on January 15, Bilhore, who has spent a decade filling potholes together with his personal arms, has a easy message for whoever takes cost of the BMC. Pothole-free roads are a vital difficulty, he stated, “as a result of it’s common folks like us who pay the value for dangerous roads”.

[Prateek Goyal is a journalist with Newslaundry. Courtesy: Newslaundry, an Indian media watchdog founded in 2012 by Abhinandan Sekhri, Madhu Trehan and Prashant Sareen, that provides media critique, reportage and satirical commentary.]