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A broken speed breaker at the western end of the Dahisar Road subway was fixed after mid-day highlighted the woes of motorists, who said the damaged traffic-calming device was causing congestion during peak hours as many drivers would try to avoid it.

“My rickshaw’s steering system had to be fixed as the vehicle had sustained damage after weeks of driving over the speed breaker. I have started avoiding taking passengers travelling from the west to the east,” said Ramesh Hariyal, a local auto driver.

The crater-ridden speed breaker on March 25. Pic/Nimesh Dave

Hariyal added, “Because vehicles slow down so much to avoid the potholes, the covers of drains near the speed breakers have gotten loose and are damaged.”

Authorities act

Responding to mid-day’s queries on Wednesday, Naynish Vengurlekar, the ward officer of R North ward, said, “We were not aware of the issue, but as residents have pointed it out, I will send our inspectors to the area, following which the road department will fix the speed breaker as soon as possible.” Subsequently, the potholes near the subway were filled with tar, but it remains to be seen if this proves sufficient to withstand the stretch’s vehicular flow in the long term.

Voices

Mahesh Goud, who lives near the subway

‘We had been seeing this for many weeks now, and it was getting difficult to drive here. Though these potholes are small, one had to approach the speed breaker slowly. The impact on the vehicle and our bodies was terrible’
 
Rajnath Kantu Yadav, auto driver

‘The issue had persisted for months. “We had seen authorities fix potholes on the other side of the subway, but this one had been neglected somehow. We had told workers who come by to have some tea on their break to look into fixing this as well. But they say that it is not in their hands to decide what should or shouldn’t be fixed’