The South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) has released an app, built for users to report and (potentially) see potholes fixed around the country. Its launch follows Operation Vala Zonke, a large-scale program to fix up the potholes in South Africa. The app is officially known as the SANRAL Pothole App. Not imaginative, perhaps, but descriptive.
Fikile Mbalula, SA’s transport minister has said the app is available to download on the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store. Unfortunately, there appears to be an issue regarding the app’s release on the Play Store. At the time of writing, the SANRAL Pothole App cannot be found on Google’s platform. Still, if you’re an iOS user, you can begin reporting right away. Android fans, on the other hand, must wait for SANRAL to do the bare minimum.
Now available on the App Store and Google Play Store
Once you’re on the app (sorry again, Android users), you can begin logging potholes right away. To report a pothole, just upload some pics and specify its exact location. And that’s it.
“The information then gets assigned to the relevant authority, depending on where the road is, and the maintenance depot responsible for that road attends to fixing the pothole,” Mbalula said on Monday.
After this, work can begin on the damaged road. There’s no way to guarantee a speedy fix or even a fix at all. There’s no harm in trying, though. SANRAL believes it can fix potholes in under 48 hours, a bold statement to throw out before the app is seven days old, or available on both major app stores.
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“Sanral has a policy of fixing any reported potholes within 48 hours. While national roads are overwhelmingly in a pristine condition, we recognise that provincial and municipal roads require a decisive strategy and active support to augment capacity gaps.”
You can follow up on a reported pothole through the app’s pothole ticketing system — in case the 48-hour rule doesn’t work out.
Source: BusinessTech