This 67-Year-Old Is Fixing India’s Roads With His Pension

Gangadhara Tilak Katnam, the 67-year-old engineer who retired from Indian Railways in October 2008 after 35 years of service, isn’t called the ‘road doctor’ for nothing. After making fixing Hyderabad’s roads his mission, Tilak has single-handedly repaired over 1,100 potholes in the past five years.

It all started in 2010, when he was driving his Fiat car to his first day at work as a Software Design Consultant at Infotech Systems, when his car ran into a pothole full of dirty mud water and splashed a school girl and her mother. Pained and ashamed by the incident, he purchased six truckloads of gravel and filled all the potholes in the 300-meter stretch of road the very next day. A couple of days later, he witnessed two more accidents caused by potholes, one resulting in serious injury and the other in death.

He complained to the authorities but no action was taken. Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, who said “Be the change you wish to see in the world”, Tilak took things into his own hands and started filling potholes from January 19th 2010 as a weekend activity. On July 31, 2011 he quit his job at Infotech Systems and took up filling potholes as a full time occupation.

For the past five years, Tilak has been driving around the city every single day with bags of gravel and tar in the trunk of his Fiat—along with a spade, two brooms, a wire brush and a crowbar—perusing the streets of Hyderabad for potholes he can fill, and fixing them one by one. On average he spends about an hour fixing each of the potholes he finds each day.

Each time he hears about a pothole or sees one while driving, he clears the space of debris and stagnant water, pours in a mix of tar and gravel, waits for it to set, and marks the area with red caution flags. Then, delightfully, he takes a selfie with the mended road.

“Till June 2012, I spent my pension money on fixing roads. This naturally upset my wife, because she didn’t want to see me work in the hot sun and she called my son down from the US to talk some sense into me,” an amused Tilak told thenewsminute.com.

However, upon seeing his father’s determination, Tilaks son decided to help him out instead. That was the birth of ‘Shramadaan’ (meaning labor donation) – a voluntary initiative run by Tilak, where students and young adults meet and repair potholes.

“I used to spend Rs 25,000 per month (about $380) but after the GHMC (the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation) started providing materials, I only spend around Rs 15,000 of my total Rs 20,000 pension (about $300). My son takes care of my household financial needs,” Tilak added.

In June 2015, India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, announced an initiative to create 100 “Smart Cities”,  but Tilak is not impressed. “How can a city be smart if you can’t even drive in it properly and safely?” Katnam asks. “Tell Mr. Modi, that I can make India pothole-free. And I don’t want money. I don’t want a salary. I want to see a better, safer country. If we want to see change, we have to start doing it ourselves.”

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