The post ended on a dismal note. Recondo got no further road contracts from the corporation, said the presenter. The forever flat road was a story worth including in my book, *BOMBAI*. But how could I find a roadworks contractor and a municipal corporator from 55 years ago? It was time to unleash my amazing WhatsApp community of detectives.
The QR code on this page invites my readers to join *Bombai Stories*, a WhatsApp community focused on discussing various 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 Recondo.
Let’s talk about *Bombai*. Click the QR code above to join my WhatsApp group, share your *Bombai* stories for my book, and perhaps answer some of my *Bombai* questions.
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My *Bombai* sleuths tapped their networks; information began to trickle in.
A reader found out that Recondo was registered 78 years ago, on 21 February 1947. Deb Purkayastha sent a screenshot revealing that Recondo had ceased to exist, possibly due to political shifts and vested interests. Ram Warrier, a volunteer walking tour guide with Khaki Tours, discovered that one of Recondo’s Parsi directors might have been called Minoo Rustom Asli. Another reader shared that the company had been based in Panvel.
“This is like Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson,” he said.
The first breakthrough came with Shilpa Prabhudesai’s forwarded tip from a Pune friend: our current MLA Shirole’s dad might have got Recondo to do the road. I began calling friends in Pune. Someone knew a Gen Z Shirole who was also in politics. I rattled around Facebook and found Prithviraj Shirole. Was he 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 man.
My WhatsApp detectives went to work again. Finally, a Pune advocate, Sheela Adyanthaya, messaged me: “Here is his number.”
Three days ago, I finally spoke to Shrikant Shirole about roads, potholes, and miracles.
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Shirole sits under a framed picture of Shivaji in his office in Pune. There is apparently a shared blood link: his eldest daughter-in-law is a descendant of the Nimbalkar family, to which Shivaji’s wife Saibai—mother of Sambhaji—belonged.
He is spry and energetic, and doesn’t look like a man who will turn 80 next year.
And yes, he did become Pune’s youngest corporator at 20.
With a family steeped in politics, leadership might have come naturally to him, but it seems he had something extra: a willingness to push the envelope and a cast-iron sense of doing the right thing.
In 1973, he grew curious about Pune’s devastated roads. Why were they always so predictably abysmal?
The city’s Chief Engineer explained how the lowest-bidder system of tendering road-building contracts always led to cheap work and third-rate roads. The engineer thought the work of Recondo, run by two Parsi brothers, might be worth a closer look.
Recondo used hot mixing technology, in which an aggregate like stone, gravel, or sand is heated and then combined with molten bitumen. They blended these thoroughly in a hot mix plant, producing asphalt that was laid down to make roads that last forever.
After due diligence, Shirole asked the brothers to suggest a road where they could showcase their technology. They picked Jangli Maharaj Road.
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Shirole knew that Recondo would never win the Rs 15 lakh contract through the usual tender process, so he bypassed it.
Recondo, confident in their quality, offered free repairs of any defects—including potholes—for 10 years, provided all underground cabling and utilities were finished before laying the road, and pandals (temporary structures) were banned because they required breaking the roads.
Why didn’t Recondo get any more work from PMC?
The Pune Municipal Corporation wanted to be sure that the road was as incredible and weatherproof as promised, so they decided to wait and see, said Shirole. They also wanted to see if the Parsi brothers would uphold their promise of free repairs.
Alas, the need never arose.
“The dedication of a Parsi is something different from the dedication of a local contractor,” said Shirole.
Meanwhile, other contractors began setting up hot mix plants, and the city went back to its beloved lowest-bidder tendering system—a system that enriched contractors and corporators alike.
The Parsi brothers shut down Recondo and moved on, migrating to the USA. Roads returned to being predictably shabby.
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In January, however, there will be a party in Pune to celebrate the 50th birthday of its one forever road as Jangli Maharaj Road turns 50.
I don’t plan to miss it.
https://www.mid-day.com/news/opinion/article/the-hunt-for-shrikant-shirole-23595321