West Bengal has launched a GPS road repair app and web portal to track pothole and damaged-road repairs across the state, with urban local bodies required to upload photographs before, during and after work. The system is intended to create a centralised record of road repairs and help officials monitor progress ahead of an October 10 deadline.
The Path Nirman Mobile App and Portal was launched at Nagaryan in Salt Lake on Thursday by Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Minister Agnimitra Paul. The platform will use GPS-based location tracking to identify the precise site of each repair and a web dashboard to show the status of individual projects.
Under the system, urban local bodies will have to photograph damaged road stretches before work starts, while repairs are under way and after completion. The staged documentation is intended to provide a visual record of the road’s original condition, the work carried out and its condition after the intervention.
“We want to document the condition of the roads in three stages — before the repair, while the repair work is under way and after the repair has been completed,” Paul said. She said the centralised system would make it easier for officials to monitor works and maintain records across different locations.
The launch comes as the state accelerates repairs to potholes and damaged paved stretches. Paul said supervisors were monitoring the work, but added that rainfall had disrupted repair operations. She also said road repairs had been delayed by a technical glitch in the e-tender system.
The department is hopeful of completing the pending work by October 10 to 12, Paul said. The deadline for repairs had been set by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, according to the report.
The dashboard will allow authorities to follow the progress of specific repair projects and check whether work has been completed. Digital records are also expected to help officials assess the condition of roads after repairs, although the system’s effectiveness will depend on the quality and regularity of the photographs and location data uploaded by field agencies.
The monitoring plan is not limited to roads maintained by municipal bodies. Paul said the department also wanted potholes and damaged stretches on roads managed by other departments and agencies to be brought to its notice, including roads under irrigation departments and national highways. This broadens the system’s intended coverage beyond the roads directly controlled by urban local bodies, which often makes responsibility for repairs difficult for residents to identify.
Residents have been asked to report road damage through the UDMA grievance helpline, the minister’s official Facebook page and the Apnar Sarkar Apnar Pashe app. The UDMA department’s grievance cell can be reached at 1800 345 0938. Photographs submitted by residents will help officials identify locations requiring intervention, Paul said.
The portal therefore combines administrative monitoring with public reporting: authorities are expected to record repair activity through the app, while residents can flag roads that require attention. The immediate milestone remains the October 10-12 completion window announced by the department, after which the digital records will indicate which repair works were taken up and their reported status.
