He is grieving but he spoke with rare composure.

All he wanted was the road where his 15-year-old son died to be safer for those who were living.

“I would urge the authorities responsible for the road’s upkeep to repair the road immediately so that no more lives are lost. My loss is irreplaceable and I don’t want any other parent to suffer a similar situation,” said Sankar Sil.

Sil’s son Soumyo died on Wednesday after being hit by a payloader that was engaged in a hurried patchwork repair of a pothole-riddled Dinesh Nagar Road in Bansdroni.

Many residents alleged that Wednesday’s civic work was a “shoddy patchwork” undertaken by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation before the festival season.

Sankar, a rickshaw puller who would ferry passengers on the same road, said such hasty repairs were “typically undertaken ahead of every Durga Puja every year”.

“The road is repaired like this before every Puja. Within months, the road goes back to its former state,” said Sankar.

“The wheels of my rickshaw have often got stuck in muddy potholes making it difficult for me to pull the vehicle. Passengers would complain, too. The craters in some places are so big that I would tell passengers to hold on to the sidebar tightly so they don’t fall off the rickshaw,” Sankar said.

A day after his son’s death, Sankar said Soumyo was in a “joyous mood” because Puja was approaching. “Both of us had watched the Mahalaya together after which he left for his tuition, about five minutes from where we live,” said Sankar.

A heartbroken father, Sankar was hurt by the “lack of sensitivity” of the ward’s Trinamool councillor, he said.

“I caught a glimpse of the local councillor in the police station where she signalled to me and said ‘amra achhi (we are there)’. It was a casual gesture. As a people’s leader, I expected her to visit us at our home to express her condolences. She did not,” said Sankar.

Sankar said Soumyo had complained to him several times about the potholes and craters that he had to negotiate every day on his bicycle.

This was the road to his school and also the one he had to take for his tuition.

“My son had told me several times that there were too many potholes on the road making it a difficult, and sometimes dangerous, ride. On several occasions, the wheels of his bicycle would be damaged because of the craters,” said Sankar.

In just a 100m-stretch from the accident spot, The Telegraph on Wednesday spotted at least 12 craters, some as deep as six inches.

Residents of the area expressed their anger at the civic apathy and sought the presence of the councillor of Ward number 113 of the KMC, Anita Kar Majumdar. With open drains and dug-up roads, Dinesh Nagar has become a nightmare for residents.

Majumdar did not respond to calls and messages on Thursday.

In 2017, the KMC initiated a project to upgrade the drainage and sewage of areas covered by four wards — from 111 to 114 — in the city’s southern suburbs under the Kolkata Environmental Improvement Investment Program( KEIIP).