Mumbai went through one of the big big rain spells over the last 5-6 days. The sun came out today, after almost 5 days. And as Mumbai rains go, when it rained, it rained and rained..
Its a normal sight during such times, to see a humungous amount of water logging, with appearance of high tidal waves, on the roads. Well, that used to be in earlier years. This year, for a change, the water logging was hardly to be seen. The regular places where water piles up, like the King’s Circle / Gandhi Market area, were near perfect, as far as water logging goes. The area of Parel – Elphinstone road was still bad, at least 2 of these days. Perhaps that is a real low lying area patch, and there is nothing that can be done about it. But at other usual suspect places, it appears that the municipal authorities had done a good job of cleaning the sewers before the monsoon set in. And the water not piling up, in these places, was evidence of that.
But where they scored with the water drainage, the municipal authorities badly let down the citizens in the area of road conditions. After the first big rain day itself, things were terrible. Each and every road, it appeared, had given way. There were these huge potholes everywhere. Traffic goes to a crawl, with every vehicle going ever so slowly, to avoid the potholes. Vehicles suddenly veer to the left or right, when you least expect them to, as the driver tried to avoid one more hole. Fuel efficiency goes for a toss (what fuel efficiency?!). This at a time, when petrol prices are at an all time high in India, being above Rs. 42 per litre. And the tyres go through a huge test of strength. Not to speak of the test of patience of the drivers!!
Of course, the potholes bother you when it stops raining. When its raining big, you do not even see the pothole, as these are filled up with water, and you do not know what part of the road is road, and what part is the hole!
C’est la vie in Mumbai, in the rains.. !
Random Musings 