The Hindu      18.08.2014

Corporation begins restoring roads dug for laying UGD pipelines

The Thair Itteri Road in Coimbatore that wasre-laid by the Coimbatore Corporation recently.— Photo: M.Periasamy

In the next couple of weeks, the Coimbatore Corporation
will be busy restoring those roads that were dug for laying the
underground drainage (UGD) pipelines. The work will happen on a priority
basis, as the objective is to restore the roads before the next spell
of rain, says Commissioner G. Latha.

The work to
restore the roads started about a couple of days ago. The roads
measuring more than 20 km are spread over five wards in the North Zone
and 12 wards in the East Zone.

The work involves
filling earth over the pipelines to pack the trench-like dug portions
and then packing them with cement and concrete and then levelling the
place so that road users have a more-or-less flat surface to drive on.

The
Corporation has thus far dug 190 km roads. Of those, roads measuring
153 km were bitumen-topped ones. The Corporation has restored 131 km of
those bitumen-topped roads.

More than 40 km roads were earthen roads, which the Corporation has restored using earth and gravel.

Ms.
Latha says that the contractors, who undertook the UGD pipeline laying
work, are busy restoring the roads. Three engineers in the Jawaharlal
Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission wing are supervising the work.

Once
the restoration work is complete, the Corporation will then go for
laying the roads, for which the civic body has already floated tenders.

Ms.
Latha says that restoring the roads to motorable condition is a
contractual obligation of the companies that bagged the contract to lay
UGD pipelines. Re-laying the roads is the Corporation’s job and the two
works ought not to be confused.

For re-laying the
roads that were dug and damaged, the Corporation had obtained funds
worth more than Rs. 50 crore from the State Government and had re-laid a
number of roads.