The hunt for Shrikant Shirole

The hunt for Shrikant Shirole started with an Instagram share on a topic we love to rage about potholes The 25km Jangli Maharaj Road in Pune I learnt had been potholefree for 50 years after it was built in 1976 by Recondo run by two Parsi brothers So confident were they of their quality that they offered the Pune Municipal Corporation free repairs of any defects for 10 yearsIn a world where we are guaranteed shabby unprofessional work corruption negligence and poor quality in public spaces we celebrate small victories A flat road Letrsquos partyThe post ended on a dismal note ldquoRecondo got no further road contract from the corporationrdquo said the presenterThe forever flat road was a story worth including in my book BOMBAI But how to find a roadworks contractor and a municipal corporator from 55 years agoIt was time to unleash my amazing WhatsApp community of detectivesThe QR code on this page invites my readers to join Bombai Stories a WhatsApp community for discussing aspects of Mumbai and helping me find or verify stories for my book BOMBAI It has 146 members all readers and 17 chat groups dedicated to different city issues I posted in the chat group on Roads asking for help in tracking down RecondoLetrsquos talk about Bombai Click the QR code above to join my WhatsApp group to share your Bombai stories for my bookmdashand perhaps answer some of my Bombai questionsMy Bombai sleuths tapped their networks information began to trickle in A reader found out Recondo was registered 78 years ago on 21 February 1947 Deb Purkayastha sent a screenshot which revealed that Recondo had ldquoceased to exist possibly due to political shifts and vested interestsrdquoRam Warrier a volunteer walking tour guide with Khaki Tours found that one of Recondorsquos Parsi directors might have been called Minoo Rustom Asli The company another reader told me had been based in Panvel ldquoThis is like Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watsonrdquo he saidThe first breakthrough came with Shilpa Prabhudesairsquos forwarded tip from a Pune friend ldquoOur current MLA Shirolersquos dad might have got Recondo to do the roadrdquoI began calling friends in Pune Someone knew a Gen Z Shirole who was also in politics I rattled around Facebook and found Prithviraj Shirole A relative One Shirole led to another and finally I stumbled on a video of Shrikant Shirole the PMC corporator who at 20 commissioned an indestructible road Bingo I had my manMy WhatsApp detectives went to work again Finally a Pune advocate Sheela Adyanthaya messaged me ldquoHere is his numberrdquoThree days ago I finally spoke to Shrikant Shirole about roads and potholes and miraclesShirole sits under a framed picture of Shivaji in his office in Pune Apparently there is a shared blood link his eldest daughterinlaw is a descendant of the Nimbalkar family to which Shivajirsquos wife Saibai mother of Sambhaji belongedHe is spry and energetic and doesnrsquot look like a man who will turn 80 next year And yes he did become Punersquos youngest corporator at 20 With a family steeped in politics leadership might have come to him naturally but it seems he had something extra a willingness to push the envelope and a castiron sense of doing the right thing In 1973 he became curious about Punersquos devastated roads Why were they so regularly predictably abysmalThe cityrsquos Chief Engineer explained how the lowestbidder system of tendering roadbuilding contracts always led to cheap work and thirdrate roads The engineer thought the work of Recondo run by two Parsi brothers might be worth a closer lookRecondo used lsquohot mixingrsquo technology in which an aggregate like stone gravel or sand is heated and then combined with molten bitumen They are thoroughly blended in a hot mix plant becoming the asphalt that is laid down to make roads that last forever After due diligence Shirole asked the brothers to suggest a road on which they could do their magic They picked Jangli Maharaj RoadShirole knew that Recondo would never win the Rs 15 lakh contract if it was done the usual way so he bypassed the tendering processRecondo sure of their quality offered free repairs of any defect including potholes for 10 years mdash provided all roadworks and utilities finished their underground cabling before the road was laid down and pandals were banned because they required breaking roadsldquoWhy didnrsquot Recondo get any more work from the PMCrdquoldquoThe Pune Municipal Corporation wanted to be sure that the road was as incredible and weatherproof as promised so they decided to wait and seerdquo said Shirole ldquoThey also wanted to see if the Parsi brothers would do free repairs if neededrdquoAlas the need never arose ldquoThe dedication of a Parsi is something different from the dedication of a local contractorrdquo said ShiroleMeanwhile other contractors began setting up hot mix plants The city went back to its beloved lowestbidder tendering system which enriched contractors and corporators alike The Parsi brothers shut down Recondo and moved on migrating to the USA Roads returned to being predictably shabbyIn January however there will be a party in Pune to celebrate the 50th birthday of its one forever road as Jangli Maharaj Road turns 50I donrsquot plan to miss itYou can reach C Y Gopinath at cygopigmailcomSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper