Fernandes objects to this. "You can’t call them potholes," she says. "Craters is more appropriate."

Welcome to Maharashtra’s software haven — the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation, where dotcoms and potholes flourish cheek-by-jowl. One can’t help gasping with shock at the fact that the government is trying to sell this wretched stretch of rutted roads, overflowing drains, garbage-dumps and encroachments as its version of the Silicon Valley. Says a cynical member of the MIDC Marol Association "Vilasrao Deshmukh has gone to the US to invite IT investment. But one look at MIDC’s roads will be enough for investors to pack their laptops and flee straight to Hyderabad."

At MIDC, one is hit by the most staggering contrasts. For example, software parks in sleek buildings are springing up at every corner, but — hold your breath — the entire MIDC area does not have sewerage. Even more ironic is the fact that the Indian Standard Institute which sets the benchmark for quality control in the country, exists on possibly the filthiest road in the area — the run-up to it is one of garbage and faeces and drain water.

Don’t dotcoms need sewerage? In MIDC, every building has a septic tank which has to be emptied once a month — an unpleasant task for all concerned. When the BMC is approached about installing connections, the standard answer is that they don’t have the budgets to lay pipelines.

The MIDC Association, however, points to the manholes in the streets as proof that the sewage infrastructure already exists and the only thing that needs to be done is for individual buildings to be connected. From 1963— when MIDC was created — to 2000, nothing has been done.

The irony is that despite not having sewerage, MIDC occupants have to still pay sewage charges. That’s not all. Because they don’t have sewerage, MIDC occupants have to pay a higher property tax to compensate for the unhygienic septic tank practice. As the Association says, it gets better all the time.

But even the lack of sewerage pales into insignificance when MIDC-ians are asked about the roads. Barring a few parts of the 8-km road stretch, there are no roads in MIDC, only fatal stretches of potholes and stones. In the monsoon, it makes more sense to travel by boat, says Sabrina Mukand of Pantaloon. Reaching work everyday is a nightmare.

We pay around Rs 100 crore in taxes to the government every year, says Apurva Patel, secretary of the MIDC Association. "Even if 20 per cent of this sum was invested in maintaining the area, it would be a paradise. A few years ago, the Nariman Point Association complained that their area was unclean. If they had to work at MIDC, they would have stopped paying taxes"

The standard excuse cited by the BMC is lack of funds . But the root of the problem is that for a number of years, the MIDC roads were treated like a ping-pong ball with neither the MIDC nor the BMC ready to accept responsibility for them. The MIDC position was that the roads had been handed over to the BMC in 1987; for years, the BMC steadfastly denied this. Finally, after chasing the matter to the end, the MDC Association got hold of the relevant document which stated that the MIDC had indeed handed over charge. Additional municipal commissioner G.S. Gill, in a written statement said "It is necessary to point out that as per the documents given by the MIDC, the roads have been handed over to the MCGM in 1987 and therefore it is our responsibility to maintain them".

Though Gill accepted responsibility last year, precious little has been done since. "The attitude of the BMC remains that the roads do not belong to them, says Patel. But when it comes to collecting money from the various utilities who dig up the road, the BMC suddenly becomes the owner. For example, Tata Electric pays as much as Rs. 600 per square metre to dig a road. Why can't that money be ploughed back to repair the roads? At no point has any resurfacing been done".

A series of meetings were held between the MIDC Association and the BMC, and at one point the members even stopped paying property taxes. This move was met with an officious note from the municipal authorities stating: Please note that services and taxes are not correlated. Under pressure of their property being attached, individual members began to quietly pay the taxes and so that campaign came to naught.

Finally, last week, a delegation of industrialists and businessmen went to meet municipal commissioner U. Ranganathan. Ranganathan has promised that within a fortnight action will be taken and the state of the roads will be addressed.

The following anecdote is a much-relished one in MIDC. It happened four years ago when an American gent wanted to buy a pair of shoes at the local shoe shop. He couldn't reach the shop because the approach road was a flooded mess where every rickshaw refused to venture despite being tempted with dollars. But the shopkeeper was keen that the firang patronise his shop and so a provisional palanquin was made, the American was hoisted on a chair and four workers from the shop bore him across the swirling waters to the shoe shop. Subsequently, the shop closed down.

Road rage expresses itself in many ways at MIDC: MTNL employees gheraoed their administration manager and said that they would not come to work unless something was done to the roads. Many employees resigned from firms simply because they couldn't cope with the terrible traffic jams. According to an employee of Eindia.com, there have been cases of pregnant women fainting in contract buses stuck for more than 20 minutes in traffic jams. At Crossroad B-the filthiest stretch imaginable-employees of Argo lndutries are constantly falling ill because they have to wade through faeces and garbage to enter their office.

But the frustration present is best illustrated in the incident involving Onward Novell Software Ltd, an IT company. Novell was expecting an international guest and had requested the BMC time and again to repair the road outside their office, but had made little headway. As-a last-ditch solution, says Wency Pereira, manager administration, Novell India, "I looked through the Yellow Pages, tracked down a contractor and got the road redone and tarred at a cost of Rs 7 lakh to the company."