Highway Pothole Exposes Rods, Bursts 15 Tyres After Rs 620 Crore Spent On Repairs | Photos

Even before Mumbai, the country's financial capital, saw its first proper spell of monsoon rain, the city's civic infrastructure was already exposed — a falling tree claimed a child's life, while another person died after falling into an open manhole, raising serious questions over the BMC's preparedness.

Now, a fresh and equally alarming case of infrastructure failure has emerged from neighbouring Palghar district, this time on one of the region's busiest national highways.

A massive pothole opened up in the middle of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad National Highway at Mahalakshmi, with iron reinforcement bars used in the concrete surfacing clearly visible, sticking out of the damaged stretch of road.

Under cover of night, on a high-speed highway stretch, vehicle after vehicle drove into the pothole — more than 15 cars suffered tyre bursts in a chain of incidents within just 10 to 12 minutes.

The failure comes barely a year after a staggering Rs 620 crore was spent on white-topping this very stretch of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway, a technique meant to make roads more durable and long-lasting.

Despite this massive expenditure, the highway's condition deteriorated dangerously with the very first rain, exposing the reinforcement bars and leaving commuters furious over the quality of work carried out.

No major casualties were reported this time, but angry motorists have demanded the pothole be fixed immediately, questioning whether this is really what Rs 620 crore worth of "development" looks like.