PotHoleRaja

PotHoleRaja

PotHoleRaja is an initiative to engage the public leveraging employees, students and volunteers to make the roads safer and pothole free.

PotHoleRaja logo

PotHoleRaja

It is a social and volunteering engagement for education, awareness creation and fixing issue regarding road safety and pothole management.

Employees of organizations, responsible citizens, students and many volunteers come together to identify, raise awareness and funds and find solutions for the issues of roads.

The process begins with reporting a pothole by identifying the GPS location and taking a picture of it. This information is then sent to +91 814 POTHOLE (+91 814 7684653) either as an SMS or WhatsApp message. It can also be sent online through the website, www.potholeraja.com.

By using the DIY (Do It Yourself) model, PotHoleRaja is actively involved with the public by encouraging them to fix potholes and road issues on their own. This idea was even spread at TED Talk in 2017 and DD News 2018

Where?

Though the PotHoleRaja movement started in Bangalore, it has gone beyond and spread across India. As on May 2018, over 2000 plus square meter of potholes has been fixed across Bengaluru, Chennai, Bidadi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and other smaller areas.

The public from multiple cities are engaging in advocating for road safety and taking on responsibility for it.

DD Doordarshan also spoke how government and the public can leverage PotHoleRaja to make bigger impact.

Pothole fix using cold asphalt by PotHoleRaja volunteers

Demographics
Location	Started in Bangalore, Now in Bidadi, Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Noida and other smaller areas
Year Started	2015
Focus	Road Safety & Pothole Management Public, Employee & Organization Engagement Corporate Social Responsibility Public Private Partnership Innovative method and material for pothole fix
Impact of PotHoleRaja (As on May 2018)	2000+ square meter of potholes fixed 100+ volunteers for road safety 1000+ students educated 30+ companies driving CSR based Road Safety 10+ Social Ventures and NGOs support the cause Many Industrial Area, IT Parks, Hospitals, Education institutes and more are getting pothole free Creating a key metric of measurement "Pothole Free Zone"

Why & When?

PotHoleRaja was initiated as a thought process by Prathap Bhimasena Rao during 2014-15. The key triggers to start this initiative were

• Social Action Projects(SAP) done by 16 year old school children during their 10th grade, though these projects which children did was for academic requirement, the impact that each child could bring to society was amazing and mind boggling.
• Question asked by foreign nationals when Prathap traveled around many countries, many were interested to know more about India and Bengaluru, but most of the questions were around why our roads are so unsafe, traffic congestion and potholes.This was very uncomfortable for him.
• Prathap's own team members having injured and broken arm and legs while driving to office, a close friend losing his own daughter in a road accident caused from pothole
• Complain from parents and relatives about how uncomfortable driving is, in spite of having luxury cars
• Thousands of people die on roads every day and most of it were because of road safety issues including potholes

These kept on bothering Prathap for over few years, he did his research on different ways and methods how roads around the world are managed and maintained.In 2015 he started his research and created a mobile based identification and tracking system for reporting and know the status of potholes and road safety issues. Created a unique mobile number +91 814 POTHOLE (+91 814 7684653) which can be used for sharing any pothole or road issues as an SMS or WhatsApp. This made job simple for all those who wanted to report any issues on the roads they drive.

His exposure to many countries road infrastructure projects as a consultant created avenues for him to explore some of the best alternative for pothole fix which was eco-friendly, cost effective, least technical and which can engage public participation. He started using cold asphalt which was the best material for potholes, initially imported them, later started buying from Shell Petroleum, HINCOL and others locally.

One of the major barrier he had to break were the myths and beliefs of people.

• Road works means only road authorities, public works department or municipality has to do.
• We just pay taxes, we don’t need to do anything
• How can we fix roads, don’t we need permissions / approvals. Will they not stop us.
• How can we fix potholes, I am not an engineer
• Road authorities don’t do anything, contractors just make money and not bothered about roads
• Potholes and roads are big way of making money for politicians and authorities.

These were broken when Prathap himself went on roads, started fixing potholes alone and seeing the impact. Slowly his friends, acquaintances and known people started appreciating and supporting his cause. A know business friend shared about PotHoleRaja to a radio station and in January 2017, Fever 104 FM Radio Jockey Sriram Sulia from Bangalore called and created a campaign in his The Super Hero Show which became a huge success with thousands of listeners starting to appreciate, volunteered by reporting potholes and also came along to fix potholes. This created a big public movement which then got viral in media, news and TV channels. . Many similar campaigns started on other radio & TV channels. Refer to Media section for more information.

The PotHoleRaja initiative has been a change maker of this belief system in the community.

Having heard and seen many postings, publications and listening, many citizens started calling and volunteering. One of them was Sourabh Kumar who was working in HP as a software engineer, he started to come as volunteer to fix potholes starting from February 2017 till November 2017, then he decided to leave HP and join PotHoleRaja initiative full time in December 2017 as he saw this was more interesting and his life calling.

File:Pothole fix steps.png

Pothole fixing steps by PotHoleRaja

Pothole fixing has been seen as technical and cumbersome activity. However, PotHoleRaja has been able to demonstrate and educate that the entire process can be done in less than 15 minutes with permanent and lasting effects for commuters. The process, material and method is simple, non-technical and least time consuming.

Potholes are not only an issue on public roads, but also on private roads. Roads that are within a compound, industrial area, IT parks, hospitals, education institutes, gated communities, layouts, resorts and any other form of roads that are managed by their own funds and do not need government or public funds. They also have issues of potholes which are not addressed most of the time. Traditionally, these issues recur every few years. This process involves tendering, getting the right set of contractors, having a, expensive budget for road laying or resurfacing and involves many approvals internally. PotHoleRaja has been called for managing and maintaining roads pothole free in these private roads as well. Industry bodies like Bidadi Industrial Area, Electronic City Township Authority, Whitefield Industrial Area, large hospitals like Vydehi, educational institutes, factories, and IT parks has engaged PotHoleRaja for their road safety.

How?

PotHoleRaja has been leveraging cold asphalt technology for all the pothole fix. This method has been in existence for a long time, however, most of the road authorities and contractors are either unaware or reluctant to use the latest technology available.

There is a variety of research work being done to solve pothole issues. Many of them address topics like materials for pothole fixing, retrofitting automobile parts which can adapt and work with roads full of potholes and for identifying and cautioning the rider about potholes.

PotHoleRaja is doing research on how to use plastic and rubber tire waste along with cold asphalt. PotHoleRaja was also offered incubation support from Government of India- Ministry of Science & Technology – NRDC (National Research Development Corporation) for research & development related to pothole solutions. Ref.# NRDCHQ/IC/2018/42 .

PotHoleRaja is a Registered Trademark in India . PotHoleRaja is continuously working on creating innovative methods, materials, and engagement models to make sure the roads we travel are safer and pothole free.

Public Involvement

The process begins with reporting a pothole by identifying the location using the GPS and taking a picture of it. This information is then sent to +91 814 POTHOLE (+91 814 7684653) either as an SMS or WhatsApp message. It can also be sent online through the website, www.potholeraja.com.

PotHoleRaja gets about 8 to 10 potholes reports every day. All the potholes reported by the public have live updates on www.potholeraja.com website with the following information:

• Current status of the pothole along with the GPS location (Green for fixed and red for pending)
• Before and after pictures for the fixed potholes
• Severity and dimensions of potholes
• Signatures of volunteers who volunteered and fixed issues

Organizational Involvement & CSR

Organizations are enabling employee engagement under their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) for road safety drives by empowering them to report issues they face on the roads they drive on and get them to engage by volunteering to fix them as well as raise funds through CSR, employee contributions and donations. One of the challenges most of the corporate companies face is the awareness of the various social causes that can be taken under CSR initiatives. The CSR Gazette published by Government has a broad framework, and cover road safety and pothole work. Companies like RED FM , Underwriter Laboratories , Canara Bank , Qwikcilver, Indus Towers and many others continue to engage with PotHoleRaja in making roads safer ,,

File:Pothole by Transgender friend.png

Pothole filled by Priyanka the first Transgender Radio Jockey

Many NGOs and social venture projects have been supporting the PotHoleRaja initiative. PotHoleRaja is also engaging and creating awareness amongst the transgender community to take this on as an alternative career. Priyanka Divakar, the first transgender radio jockey in the country is a part of this movement and has played a vital role in promoting this within her community.

Media

Potholes are a global issue, as highlighted by global media houses like the BBC, Economist. Many countries has raised & spent millions of dollars in fixing potholes.

In India, media houses like Fever 104 FM, 98.3 Radio Mirchi 93.5 RED FM , MTV , Mirror Now , ETV , Live Mint , TV 9 , and others have been propagating the importance of safer roads by demanding the contractors, road authorities, and the government to . They have also showcased how PotHoleRaja has been able to add significant value to society on a volunteering basis and bring that change.^[38]

PotholeRaja’s work has been covered by the Deccan Chronicle , One India , New Indian Express in 2017.

As highlighted in The Hindu News PotHoleRaja has engaged a large groups of the public through volunteering and raising awareness, thus creating a social movement of its own. This was also shared in The Hindu in School for students. The Better India in 2017 mentioned that PotHoleRaja’s work of fixing over 200 potholes, encouraging the public to take initiative and play their part in making the roads a safer place. Radio stations like Fever 104 FM , RED FM and others have had their radio jockeys team up with the volunteers of PotHoleRaja and fixed potholes in Bangalore to further spread awareness through their radio shows and social media.

Times of India highlighted the public’s expectations and the importance of road maintenance in October 2017.

Feedback from our volunteers & public about how pothole fixing has been informative, entertaining and fulfilling & has encouraged and pushed this movement to reach the greater public. Deccan Herald

References

This article "PotHoleRaja" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:PotHoleRaja. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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