KALYAN: Five dead and three injured due to potholes in a little over a month. Kalyan never had it so bad earlier. With the PWD minister being the guardian minister, and his party ruling the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) for 20 years, the least that Kalyan residents would have expected is safe commute, at least during the last monsoon before the election year.However, vast stretches of roads are dotted with potholes, thanks to official apathy and shortage of funds. A KDMC official said they have a budget of only Rs 12 crore for the repair of 530 km of roads. So, not many contractors show any interest.Unlike BMC, the country's richest civic body, the KDMC doesn't have much funds, and nor does it get much aid from the government."The KDMC should allocate at least Rs 15 crore. Contractors who take up the work at low cost often do a shoddy job," said a contractor who had taken up KDMC projects in the past. When KDMC invited bids for road repairs on March 3, there was no response. It invited bids the second time on March 31, but this time two contractors showed interest-according to norms, there must be at least three bidders for such projects.Consequently, the KDMC invited bids for the third time on May 18. Only one contractor showed interest, but quoted 20% above the the civic body's estimate. An official said as that according to the rules, if there's only one bidder in the third call, the contractor can be awarded the work. "We initiated cost negotiations with him. But by the time the rate was finalized, the model code of conduct for the MLC elections from graduates constituency came into force on May 25," an official said.Mayor Vinita Rane told TOI they approached the state election commission seeking permission to go ahead with the pre-monsoon road repair work, but did not get any response.Activists say KDMC must have planned well in advance as everyone were aware of the elections and likely hiccups in tendering process. Shreenivas Ghanekar, an activist said, "It was the KDMC's responsibility to invite tenders well in advance."Citizens and activists who staged a protest against poor roads on Sunday pointed out the the guardian minister, Shiv Sena 's Eknath Shinde, visited the area only after death of five people. During his visit to the city on Saturday, Shinde slammed KDMC and MSRDC for delay in to filling potholes and asked both agencies to work together and fill potholes on priority.Shinde told TOI: "As the Mumbra bypass road is closed for repairs, all heavy vehicles are passing through Kalyan, due to which potholes are emerging on MSRDC roads. I will look if there was any negligence."

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