Smart City dream fades as Jaipur battles potholes & flooded roads
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Jaipur: With every spell of monsoon rain, Jaipur's dream of becoming a Smart City seems to slip further into waterlogged streets and gaping potholes. From inner-city colonies to high-end localities like Vatika Road, the situation has reached alarming levels, not just of inconvenience, but of actual danger.
On Friday, after heavy showers, a car sank into a deep, water-filled pothole on Vatika Road. The roads, now reduced to rubble in several parts, are barely navigable. In many areas, residents walk in fear, unsure whether the ground beneath will cave in due to incomplete construction work or erosion.
Manoj Yadav, a resident of Vatika Road, voiced his frustration: "We no longer trust the govt or the officials. How can they call this a Smart City? It's a joke now."
The root of the crisis lies in poor coordination between departments like the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED), Jaipur Development Authority (JDA), and the Power Transmission Corporation. PHED began laying water pipelines but failed to finish the work on time. As a result, JDA could not repair or resurface the roads before the rains, leading to sunken patches, open trenches, and dangerous craters.
According to a report, 630 km of roads were dug up before the monsoon, but only 176 km were resurfaced or layered with WMM (Wet Mix Macadam).
In several colonies, roads that were laid just six months ago were dug up again for pipeline work — leaving residents deeply frustrated.
Areas like Kamla Nehru Nagar on Ajmer Road, Saraswati Nagar and Akhil Nagar in Malviya Nagar, and colonies in Dhawas are among the worst affected. Many of these localities are now waterlogged or have dangerously unstable roads. In places like MI Road and New Sanganer Road, the roads have either collapsed or become flooded due to incomplete drainage work.
Residents across the city are now openly questioning the Smart City project. "If departments keep shifting blame and leaving work half-done, who exactly is this city being made smart for?" asked one resident.
As more rain is forecast, the city isn't just battling water, it's battling neglect, inefficiency, and broken promises.
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