The Times of India            07.08.2013

Civic body plans paver blocks for potholes

AURANGABAD: The Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) on Tuesday decided to cover potholes on main roads in the city with paver blocks. The civic body has identified potholes on a stretch of 200 km road and will spend Rs 1.2 crore to cover them.

Admitting that the patch work being done recently failed to stand up to expectations, executive engineer in AMC, Sikander Ali, said, "It (paver blocks) will last long and sustain pressure of heavy traffic flow on busy roads. Covering potholes with paver blocks is a fast and reliable method. It would take 15-20 days to complete the work. Besides, the civic body would continue to use wet mix for filling up small potholes."

"Although in small quantity, we had previously used paver blocks to level small holes on city roads. But in the current scenario, we will cover most of the big potholes with it," he said, adding that the potholes on Beed Bypass, Central Bus stand road, Jalna road, the stretch between railway station and Baba Petrol pump and other major roads with heavy traffic movement will be given priority.

Ali said only 30% roads in the city had developed potholes and the recently constructed roads are intact. "The AMC had constructed five major roads in different parts of the city between 2005 and 2007 at a cost of Rs 25 crore. None of these roads have been damaged," he said.

K R Kulkarni, deputy engineer in AMC, said the civic administration would spend Rs 20 lakh each in all the six municipal wards. He said the civic body was now shifting its attention on the pathetic condition of the roads. "We have decided to dig out holes in rectangular shapes before filling them with wet mix. Earlier, we had directly poured wet mix in many small holes, but continuous rain defeated the purpose. Potholes have increased in many places in the last few days due to rain. We could not undertake repairing work last week as it was raining incessantly," he said.

Kulkarni said the civic body was consulting its counterpart in Thane to improve the condition of roads. "The innovative method used by Thane municipal body for repairing roads recently has shown encouraging results," he said.

The civic administration had recently said that the 1,100-km long network of roads in the city would be repaired before August 10. Earlier, Kulkarni had said that 25% patch work in ward A and D and more than 20% work in ward B, C, E, and F have been completed.

However, there have been controversies in the past over the usefulness of paver blocks. Time and again, experts have cried foul over the liberal use of paver blocks without ensuring quality. Paver blocks were introduced as a quick-fix solution for junctions and footpaths. But, over the years, entire stretches of roads have been done with paver blocks.

Umesh Kahdekar, head of the civil engineering department, Government Engineering College, Aurangabad, said that paver blocks would not solve the purpose. "Technically, the authorities should remove the entire tar/cement patch and build road with paver blocks. But if you put them on potholes, it will create an uneven surface," he said.

Corporator Mir Hidayat Ali ridiculed the AMC's concept and said it was wastage of money. "The authorities do not have any concrete plan for filling city's potholes. They are only adopting trial and error method and killing time. Moreover, the blocks are used for altogether different purposes," he said.