“India and Its Eternal Nemesis: The Pothole Problem That Never Dies”, Goa Chronicles, October 16, 2025
“Every monsoon, India becomes a country divided — not by politics or religion — but by potholes. The rich jump over them in SUVs, the poor fall into them on two-wheelers, and the government drives comfortably above them in official ignorance. Potholes in India are not just craters on the road – they are symbolic wounds of a nation that can launch missions to Mars but cannot keep its streets from resembling lunar surfaces.
Let’s be honest – we have normalised the pothole. It is as Indian as the traffic jam, the honking, and the chai stall at the corner. Every city, town, and village has its signature version – the Panjim puddle, the Mumbai moon-crater, the Delhi death trap, the Bengaluru belly-dipper. They come in all shapes, depths, and hazards. Some can swallow a tire. Some can swallow a life. But all have one thing in common – they are born from apathy and die only when they are filled by another contractor’s corruption.
India’s pothole problem is not just an infrastructural issue – it’s an economy. According to a 2023 Ministry of Road Transport and Highways report, poor road conditions, including potholes, accounted for over 3,600 deaths annually. But behind every death is a thriving ecosystem – contractors who underfill, bureaucrats who overlook, engineers who overbill, and politicians who inaugurate the same stretch of road three times in one election cycle…….”
Read full article at goachronicle.com
