Potholes pedestrians' bane too during monsoon

Potholes pedestrians' bane too during monsoon Potholes on road are bad news for motorists. But during monsoon when these potholes get filled with rainwater, it is pedestrians who need to take care. After all, who wants to get splashed with filthy water? This problem seems to be endemic at Vashi Bus Depot. Since water used to get filled in the potholes, last year height of the road was increased here to prevent water-logging. Daily commuters welcomed the step as they had to bear with the splashes on their clothes. Everything was fine till potholes started appearing on recarpeted roads inside the Vashi bus depot. Small and huge stones are always found flying in the air due to the impact of speeding buses. The situation has now worsened with the arrival of monsoon. Whenever a bus takes a turn from the bus stand meant for Bandra most of the commuters pray that no water or stone gets splashed. Triptesh Shetty, resident of Sector-46, Nerul who is an entrepreneur running pest control business recalls a horrible experience. "I was on a business meet with one of my colleagues at Vashi. We just alighted from NMMT AC bus coming from CBD Belapur and were discussing which way to go when all of a sudden a bus splashed filthy rainwater on us. Thoroughly drenched, we had to cancel our meeting and return. Like us there are many people who become hapless victims of this problem". Rajan Iyer, a senior citizen of Sector 9, Vashi says, "To save themselves commuters run towards footpath, but to their dismay the strip along that footpath is encroached by illegal hawkers". When contacted Jitendra Papalkar, general manager of NMMT said, "We have passed the tender for initiating work on filling the potholes. Once monsoon is over we will initiate the work." Will it help then, Mr Papalkar?