The Times of India      21.09.2010

Only major roads to be concretised

 NAGPUR: Nagpur Municipal Corporation has shelved its earlier plan of concretising 234 roads of nine and 12 metre width. It will now concretise 71 major roads of 18 metre width that are in extremely bad condition with innumerable potholes and shoddy patchwork.

NMC sources informed that standing committee chairman Sandeep Joshi and municipal commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal recently conducted survey of all the ninemetre 12-metre internal roads proposed by local corporators for concretization and found them of no relevance to needs of every growing traffic on major roads.

Now, the civic body will take up concretisation of 71 roads having total length of over 140 km across the city. The present tar roads will be given a 8 to 10 inch thick concrete coating as per norms and codes set up by Indian Roads Congress (IRC). These are expected to remain virtually intact for 30 to 35 years as against three to five life of tar roads. The project will cost NMC Rs 250 crore.

Joshi confirmed that NMC public works department has been asked to re-survey 71 major roads and put up the proposal before standing committee for approval within a month. If this comes through, the city may get to major roads like Khamla to Orange City hospital square, Laxmi Nagar to Bajaj Nagar to Laxmi Bhuvan square, Munje square to Anand Talkies turn into concrete before next monsoon, he added.

During the BJP-Shiv Sena government in state, the then PWD minister Nitin Gadkari had constructed 30 km of cement roads in the city. These are still doing well and need little or no maintenance. However, these are full concret roads whereas ones to be built now will have concrete laid over existing bitumen surface.

"We have planned these new concrete topping roads to provide smooth and potholefree rides in the next few years across city," Joshi added. "Initial estimates of the work are ready and the final plan will be ready by monthend. After getting technical sanction from structural designer, tenders will be floated.