Potholes, patchworks and rain turn Bhopal roads into accident zones

Every rain, Bhopal roads turn into accident zones

Bhopal: Bhopal’s roads are increasingly resembling the troubled stretch near the under-construction Metro work at Indrapuri, where broken surfaces and ongoing construction are quietly fuelling minor accidents across the city.

A government orthopaedic doctor said he sees one or two road-safety-related cases a day, and while that may seem small, the burden adds up when major hospital OPDs handle 1,500 to 4,000 patients daily.

Official data on the impact of battered roads remains sketchy, with most figures coming from police records and 108 emergency calls. Minor mishaps often go unrecorded, even though they are common — like the BRTS crash last week, when two two-wheelers collided after one rider swerved to avoid a broken patch of road.

Commuters say they are forced to navigate broken patches, potholes and half-done repairs across key stretches of the city. “Every rain turns the same stretch into a hazard,” said Satish, a daily commuter, describing a route where riders slow down sharply to avoid hidden craters and waterlogged dips.

Traffic officials have also flagged repeated black spots such as Platinum Plaza Square, Misrod, VIP Road and Kolar as persistent danger zones. “Potholes do not just damage vehicles; they change driver behaviour,” said a road safety expert. “When people swerve suddenly, brake hard or lose control on broken edges, the road itself becomes part of the crash.”

At several intersections, residents say the problem is compounded by waterlogging, poor shoulder condition and fading lane discipline. A shopkeeper near a damaged stretch in Karond said, “After the first spell of rain, you can’t tell where the pothole ends and the lane begins.” For two-wheeler riders in particular, that uncertainty is enough to turn a routine commute into a gamble.

Responsibility for roads in Bhopal is divided among multiple agencies. The BMC looks after about 70% of the city’s inner lanes and is struggling to maintain its existing road network of nearly 1,020 km. Other roads are maintained by the PWD, the Capital Project Authority (CPA) and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), while some colony stretches fall under the Bhopal Development Authority (BDA).

₹77 crore spent on 1,000 km roads, BMC says roads are ‘generally satisfactory’

Bhopal Municipal Corporation spent about ₹45 crore over the past year on renewal coating work across roughly 74 km of CC and BT roads, using funds from various heads. The civic body has also identified another 48 km of damaged or deteriorated roads for renewal, with an estimated expenditure of around ₹32 crore.

In its statement, BMC said the condition of the remaining roads under its jurisdiction is generally satisfactory and that repair and maintenance work is being carried out continuously, depending on the corporation’s financial position and available resources. It also said that some stretches will be taken up only after sewage and drinking-water pipeline laying under AMRUT 2.0 is completed, followed by road restoration.

Put simply, the corporation is saying it has already spent a significant amount on road renewal, has more work lined up, and is also waiting for utility works to finish before repairing some stretches. The numbers suggest that the average spending comes to about ₹60.8 lakh per km for the 74 km already completed and roughly ₹66.7 lakh per km for the 48 km now planned.