The Indian Express              08.08.2013

Pothole menace: PMC to concretise 58 prime roads

As an exception, the two-km stretch of Pune-Mumbai highway at Khadki is pothole-free. Sandeep Daundkar

To get rid of the problem of potholes arising due to monsoon, the
Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) — which drew severe criticism and has
even been dragged to court — has chalked out a plan of concretisation of
58 main roads totalling 110 km in the next five years at an estimated
cost of Rs 600 crore.

Shaken by the public uproar, the civic road department has
prepared a report citing reasons behind the roads developing potholes
and its plan to get things in place to ensure a smooth ride on city
roads throughout the year. After the potholes surfaced and PMC drew
criticism from citizens, Municipal Commissioner Mahesh Pathak had said
that concretisation was the only solution. Sources said the commissioner
had asked officials to prepare the plan without wasting time.

According to the plan, the PMC would also undertake mastic
asphalting at all major junctions. It further said that construction of
any new road of the development plan is being done through
concretisation after laying service lines.

The administration said potholes were surfacing because of the
work undertaken for laying pipeline, drainage and other utility
services. Around 70 per cent of potholes are at the place where the
service lines were repaired and other places it was due to the absence
of stormwater drainage. Many service roads are damaged due to the
ongoing work of flyover, bridges and grade separator in various parts of
city.

In its report, the road department said the PMC has only 200 km
of the 2,200-km concrete roads, while rest are made of tar. The
department requires at least Rs 350 crore per year to keep all roads in
good condition. However, the budgetary provision is very less and the
department could get provision of Rs 70 crore in three years, which is a
big gap between the need and actual allocation.

It was also pointed out that 60 per cent of city roads do not have
stormwater drainage system and the water collected on these roads causes
the damage. There is also lack of coordination between various
departments for laying service lines.

The load on city roads has also increased tremendously in the
past few years and the unavailability of complete road area for
development causes uneven surface on roads with work being completed in
patches.