How many years for roads to be completely motorable: Bombay High Court questions BMC

3 min readJun 30, 2026 11:27 AM IST

The BMC, in its affidavit filed through Chief Engineer (Sewerage Operation) Anilkumar Bhoite, stated that of 73,437 manholes in the city, 71,426 have protective grills and such grills could not be installed on 2,011 manholes as they were buried or were non-accessible. (Source: File)

The Bombay High Court on Monday questioned the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) as to how many years it would require to make a statement that all the roads in the city under its purview are completely motorable and are without any potholes or open manholes.

This came after the civic body denied the grievance in a suo motu PIL that it has failed to install protective grills on the manholes and stated that work for the installation of such grills is carried out by the respective Ward Officers.

The BMC, in its affidavit filed through Chief Engineer (Sewerage Operation) Anilkumar Bhoite, stated that of 73,437 manholes in the city, 71,426 have protective grills and such grills could not be installed on 2,011 manholes as they were buried or were non-accessible.

A bench of Justices Ajey S Gadkari and Kamal R Khata was hearing an interim application by lawyer Ruju Thakker in the suo motu PIL raising concerns over potholes, non-installation of protective grills on manholes in Mumbai and its surrounding areas, along with the issue of compensation for pothole-related deaths.

The judges orally questioned the civic body, asking that while one can drive at a speed of 100 kmph for a longer distance without any single pothole, how many years the BMC would take to claim that all its roads are completely motorable and comply with orders issued by the HC for over two decades.

While the BMC claimed that complaints by citizens were being resolved, the judges asked the civic body to produce relevant pictures of the situation before and after the complaint.

After Thakker, who appeared in person, referred to the BMC affidavit, which claimed that 957 protective grills were being stolen in the ‘A’ Ward of the city alone, the HC asked the civic body to inform it about how many FIRs it had lodged in connection with such incidents. As per the affidavit, H-West Ward of the BMC had the highest number of 1,144 cases of protective grills being missing, stolen or tilted.

The Justice Gadkari-led bench on Monday also asked the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) Commissioner to personally look into the matter related to the delayed compensation for over six months to the victim or the kin of victims for injuries or deaths due to potholes, since the relevant committee’s meeting for the kin of the toddler who fell into a stormwater drain and died last year, as claimed by Thakker.

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The HC pulled up the authorities for bad roads in Thane city and questioned why the civic body did not find the issue of compensation to be serious, while it was bound to provide compensation within six weeks as per the court directions. Seeking the BMC’s response and the TMC’s compliance affidavit, the HC posted the further hearing for July 6.

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