PANAJI
Like this year much like every year, Goa's roads were left battered by the monsoon two years ago prompting the then PWD Minister, Nilesh Cabral to take note of the backlash on social media and launch a 'pot-hole reporting app' to let people report potholes which the PWD would then repair using the Jet-patcher machine it had hired.
Two years later, it has come to light that the whole exercise has cost the exchequer a mind-boggling Rs 16,000 to repair each pothole.
At present, there are stones on the roads everywhere in the state The topic is buzzing. In many places, including the capital Panaji, the asphalted roads before the monsoon have been washed away. Recently, there was a controversy on this issue in the Panaji Municipal Corporation. The issue of road potholes was also raised in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday. MLA Vijay Sardesai raised this issue at the request of Public Works Department.
Sardesai said that when MLA Nilesh Cabral was the public works minister, the use of jet patchers to plug potholes on roads started. At that time, there was a lot of hype about it. However
If you collate the information provided by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who is the current PWD Minister, the government has spent Rs 16,000-odd per pothole repaired by the Jetpatcher.
In a written answer to the Goa legislative Assembly, Sawant said, the State has thus far spent Rs 30.52 crore on jetpatchers and a total of 18,899 potholes were repaired, thus working out to an average cost of Rs 16,000-odd per pothole repaired.
While the unstarred question went largely unnoticed, the issue was highlighted by Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai, who quoted Sawant's Jetpather answer in his interventions during the discussion on PWD demands for grants on the last day of the just concluded monsoon session on Wednesday.
The brainchild of Cabral when he landed the prized PWD portfolio after Sawant and BJP returned to power post the 2022 assembly, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari had launched the pot-hole reporting app days before Christmas in 2022.
It involved reporting potholes using the geotagging facility so the PWD engineers and contractors can accurately locate it and begin repairs after assessing the need.
