In October 2025, Parth Anand’s parents were driving to Delhi’s Karol Bagh to buy clothes for his grandparents’ anniversary when their motorcycle hit a pothole.They fell off the vehicle and suffered fractures. It took them about three months to recover.For Anand, the accident was difficult to dismiss as just another bad-road mishap. He noticed that the pothole appeared to have been there for some time.He reported the pothole through the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s (MCD) system. But responses, he found, could take three to four months.“What struck me was that more and more people were complaining, but the authorities were still not responding. That frustration kept growing,” he said.That experience eventually became the starting point for Project Sadak.In March this year, the 15-year-old began building a platform that would do more than collect pothole complaints. It would identify the agency responsible, send the complaint to it and, crucially, leave a public trail of what happened next.Building the platformStory continues below this adAnand built the first platform himself, working on it alongside school — he studies at St Francis de Sales School in Janakpuri — during a roughly three-hour window between tuition and his commute home.He later used AI to develop the platform further.As of September, the platform had recorded 1,815 reports across India, including more than 220 from Delhi. Bengaluru accounts for more than 1,500, while other reports have come from Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Kerala.More than 20 repairs have been documented through the platform.In Vikaspuri, two potholes reported through Sadak in April were fixed in about five days, Anand said. In Bengaluru, a complaint filed in June was followed by a repair within two days. Anand said his analysis of pothole complaints in the city found that repairs typically take three to four months.The number of reports also rose during the monsoon, increasing by 25% in cities such as Bengaluru and Delhi, he added.How does it work?Story continues below this adA resident first uploads a photograph and location of the damaged road. The report then goes through an AI-assisted verification process to identify whether the image actually shows a pothole and to detect duplicate reports.The system also asks the person reporting the pothole to classify the nature of severity. Anand said this determines how the platform follows up with authorities.Once a report is verified, an AI agent identifies the authority responsible for that particular road and files a complaint with it.Depending on the road, this could mean agencies such as the MCD or National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). The AI agent also follows up through email.Story continues below this adEach report, Anand said, is photographed, geotagged and timestamped, and its status remains publicly visible.“What makes it different is that existing channels like MCD 311 / PWD helplines take complaints, but citizens rarely see what happens next — and there’s no public record of how long the fixes take. Sadak’s focus is primarily on public tracking,” said Anand.Where AI came inInitially, Anand built the platform using his own coding knowledge. As the project grew more complex, he began using AI to further develop and scale it. “The basic reporting form was easy to build myself. It got complex once real reports started coming in.”One of the problems was duplicate reporting. “Many people report the same pothole, so the system has to tell if two reports are the same spot using GPS and photos,” he said.Story continues below this adAlongside the project, Anand said he is working on AI research in mechanistic interpretability with Prof Manolis Kellis’s lab, at MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), and is an Emergent Ventures fellow.The project also received a grant from the Lift Off Grant, an independent microgrant programme, which was used to meet the development costs of the project.On future plans, Anand said he had discussions with another country about adapting the platform to meet its national reporting requirements, and was in talks with an automotive technology company to deploy instant pothole-fixing machines, which could raise awareness about Project Sadak and the need for faster repairs.But the larger problem Anand wants to tackle is simpler than the technology behind Sadak: getting people to stop treating potholes as an unavoidable part of city life. “The issue of potholes is not new. It’s very basic. But everybody suffers from it. They see it and ignore it,” he said.Sophiya Mathew is a Correspondent at The Indian Express, based in New Delhi. She joined the Delhi bureau in 2024, and has specialization in Integrated Multimedia Journalism from the Asian College of Journalism (ACJ), Chennai. Professional Background Core Beats: Her reporting is primarily focused on the Environment and Education. Specialization: She has gained recognition for her ground-level reporting on the Yamuna floodplains and the socio-economic challenges faced by those living on its banks. She also focuses on the disparities in Delhi's education system, ranging from elite private schools to government institutions and refugee education. Recent Notable Articles (December 2025) Her recent work has been heavily centered on Delhi's severe winter pollution crisis and the government's regulatory responses: 1. The Air Pollution Crisis "A tale of two cities: Delhi govt schools choke in bad air, private classrooms set up air filters" (Dec 20, 2025): A high-impact feature contrasting the "Clean Air Bubbles" in elite schools with the reality of government school students who are exposed to an equivalent of 17 cigarettes a day due to outdoor exposure. "Delhi sees season's worst air day, second worst December AQI in nearly a decade" (Dec 15, 2025): An analytical report on the meteorological patterns trapping pollutants in the NCR. "Delhi bans non-BS VI vehicles from outside: Why curbing vehicular pollution is key" (Dec 17, 2025): Explaining the science behind targeting specific vehicle vintages to lower particulate matter. 2. Enforcement & Regulations "No fuel at pumps in Delhi without valid PUC certificate from December 18" (Dec 17, 2025): Breaking the news on the environment ministry's strict "No PUC, No Fuel" policy. 3. Education Policy "Law to regulate school fee in Delhi risks becoming procedural, say parents" (Dec 13, 2025): Investigating the loopholes in the new Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Bill, 2025. "Monsoon Session: Private school fee regulation Bill cleared after four-hour debate" (Aug 9, 2025): Covering the legislative passage of the controversial fee hike regulation. Signature Style Sophiya is known for her observational depth. Her reporting often includes vivid details from school corridors, hospital waitlists, or the banks of the Yamuna to illustrate how policy failures affect the city's most vulnerable residents. She is a frequent expert guest on the 3 Things podcast, where she explains the complexities of Delhi’s environmental laws. X (Twitter): @SophiyaMathew1 ... Read MoreStay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on InstagramTags:Delhi news