The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has repaired 1,609 of the 2,164 potholes reported across the twin township since the monsoon set in, according to civic body figures reported by Pune Pulse. That leaves 555 still unfixed, and PCMC’s own numbers from a fortnight earlier show why the backlog keeps refilling almost as fast as crews can empty it.

A moving target

In mid-July, PCMC had counted 602 potholes in just eight days of heavy rain, according to the Free Press Journal. By early August, the two-month tally for June and July alone had climbed to 1,781 complaints, of which 628 were still pending. Chief engineer Pramod Ombhase told the paper that “continuous rainfall has delayed repair work,” with crews filling gaps “whenever there is a break in the rain.” PCMC maintains about 2,073 km of road, and the repeated resurfacing this season shows a maintenance cycle that monsoon rain outruns.

The repair breakdown PCMC has published is granular: cold mix, bituminous macadam, gravel sub-base, paving blocks, cement concrete. The method matters because it is temporary by design: PCMC’s own asphalt plant stays shut during the monsoon, so crews are filling most gaps this season with cold mix and paving blocks meant to hold until drier weather allows a permanent resurfacing pass. Municipal bodies across Maharashtra use the same stopgap approach every monsoon, and it means many of the “repaired” potholes counted this week could reopen with the next heavy spell. The Free Press Journal traced exactly that pattern on the old Pune-Mumbai highway near Nigdi-Dapodi, where a temporary patch followed pipeline excavation work instead of a proper resurfacing.

What it means for residents

The affected stretches read like a map of PCMC’s daily commuter traffic: Wakad, Ravet, Tathawade and Punawale in the west, Bhosari and Chikhali in the north, plus the Ravet-Aundh BRT corridor and the old highway through Nigdi. These are dense residential and IT-commute zones where two-wheelers make up a large share of traffic, and skidding on waterlogged, pothole-scarred roads is the recurring injury risk cited in local reporting. In one case, a schoolboy was hurt near Ajmera Colony after his cycle went into a rain-filled pothole.

Pimpri-Chinchwad’s numbers are also worth reading against what happened this monsoon in Nashik, about 200 km north, where a string of pothole-linked deaths forced the civic body into a public reckoning over road maintenance and triggered resignation calls, as this paper reported in August. PCMC’s repair rate, about 74 percent of complaints closed as of August 11, has not produced a crisis on that scale. But the underlying dynamic matches: monsoon rain damages roads faster than seasonal, stopgap materials can hold them, and the real test comes once the rains ease and crews can attempt permanent resurfacing.

Outlook

PCMC says its ward-level teams are inspecting both major and internal roads, and the civic body will face pressure to convert this season’s temporary patches into lasting fixes once the asphalt plant reopens after the monsoon. Whether that follow-through happens is the real measure of the drive. Pune’s own Road Mitra pothole-reporting app sat dark for months earlier this year until officials reactivated it, a lapse this paper also covered, and it shows how easily civic tracking systems lose momentum once the immediate pressure fades.

This report was compiled and written with AI assistance from publicly reported sources, and reviewed for accuracy.

Sources: Pune Pulse, Free Press Journal