The Times of India 25.08.2012
Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon to spend Rs 80 lakh on road repair work
GURGAON: Eight months after spending around Rs 10 lakh to repair a stretch near Khandsa Road, the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) has again prepared an estimate of Rs 80 lakh to re-lay the same road. This was after the road developed cracks at various places, highlighting the inferior material used by the MCG for construction purposes, in the first place.
According to sources, in December
last year, the chief engineer had ordered a patch work on this stretch
that connects Sohna Chowk to Khandsa Road through Shivaji Nagar and over
Rs 10 lakh was spent by the engineering department to carry out the
job.
However, soon afterwards, the residents started
complaining that that the road has again started developing cracks in
many places and needs urgent repair.
"Clearly, the municipal
corporation did a very shoddy job and that is the reason why the road
has started cracking so soon. Traffic movement has also slowed down
because of the bad condition of the road and despite repeated
complaints, the authorities have not bothered to do anything about it,"
said Suraj Pal Singh, a Shivaji Nagar resident.
MCG officials,
however, say that the condition of the road has deteriorated because of
the absence of stormwater drain. "It is not true that we have used
substandard material to construct this road. The reason why it has
started developing cracks is waterlogging. Therefore, before spending
the Rs 80 lakh on repairing this one-kilometre-long road, we are going
to spend another Rs 8 lakh on laying a stormwater drain," said an
engineering department official.
However, sources say that there are no stringent measures to check the quality of the material used for construction purposes.
"There is only one agency that checks the quality of the construction
material and very often, the contractors manage to get the material
passed by using other means. There should be more such agencies to break
the monopoly and to ensure that the contractor and officials do not
collude and approve inferior material," said an official.
