After allegations from the opposition party that 250 crores were spent to procure 250 CCTV cameras, Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai raised the issue of the “exorbitant cost” of repairing potholes on roads through jet-patcher in the Assembly on Wednesday. The whole exercise has cost the state exchequer a mind-boggling Rs 16,000 to repair each pothole. Mind you this is not mentioned as the average cost of repairing the pot-holes but to repair each pot-hole.
A total of Rs 30.52 crore was spent to repair 18,899 potholes. It may be recalled that when the roads in Goa were left battered by monsoon rains two years ago, the then PWD Minister Nilesh Cabral had introduced a ‘pot hole repairing app’ in order to let people report potholes which the PWD would then repair using the jet-patcher machine it had hired.
The same funds from the state exchequer could have been utilized to provide better quality of roads so that the pot-holes do not appear during the rains. The government needs to be proactive in preventing pot-holes instead of spending on its repairs. In a similar manner, the government should also prevent littering of the beaches instead of spending crores in beach-cleaning activities.
