The Times of India 08.08.2013
Pune Municipal Corporation mulls concreting of 58 arterial tar roads
PUNE: Fergusson College and JungliMaharaj roads are among the 58 arterial roads in the city that the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) plans to concretize.
After completing concretization of the Airport, Sinhagad, Solapur roads and a stretch of the Pune-Mumbai highway, the civic body wants to convert 58 roads into cement concrete roads. "The PMC's road department is drafting the proposal. It will be forwarded to the municipal commissioner and other concerned departments for scrutiny and a final approval," said a senior PMC official with the road department.
Municipal commissioner Mahesh Pathak confirmed the development. "The use of concrete for roads has multiple benefits. It can sustain for longer period and needs less maintenance. Besides, mechanical sweeping of roads can be done better on concrete roads,' said Pathak.
The roads have been selected on the basis of traffic density, type of vehicles that ply etc. "We are ready with the list. Now the task is to identify the roads that need urgent attention. The work is in progress on finer details like the total length of roads, requirement of funds etc," said the official.
As per preliminary estimates, the expenditure for concretization per sq meter of road is Rs 2,200. The official said that tarring of roads costs Rs 1,200 per sq meter. "But if we consider the cost involved for regular maintenance, then concrete roads prove much cheaper. Besides, the life of a tar road is about 3 years while a concrete road lasts about 20 years."
The official said, "The maintenance of tar roads is expensive because they need to be resurfaced once in three years. Making budgetary provisions for repeated resurfacing and re-construction is difficult as every year new projects are proposed. Cement concrete roads will reduce maintenance cost and funds could be used for other projects."
The PMC is mulling the use of 'overlay technique' where concretization could be done without the need for complete relaying.
The city's road network is about 2,200 km long, out of which 200 km has been concretized so far. The civic administration requires about Rs 400 crore every year for repairs and maintenance of roads. However, only 30% of this fund is made available.
Some key roads that will be concretized
FC Road
JM Road
Shivaji Road
Karve Road
Katraj Road
Wadgaonsheri Road
Dhankawdi Road
Bopodi Road
Shastri Road
Cement concrete road Vs tar road
Cost Factor
The per km cost of constructing tar road as well as cement concrete road is not fixed. It varies from state to state or within the state depending upon the type of soil, rainfall and temperature variations and also traffic and environmental conditions.
Cost of construction of cement concrete roads with conventional method is normally 30-50% more than the cost of tar road
Maintenance
The maintenance cost of cement concrete road is less
Tar roads have lower initial cost but require periodic maintenance
Cement concrete roads also require routine maintenance but its cost is less in comparison
Tar roads require regular routine maintenance and periodic maintenance normally at five-year interval. These are designed for 10-year design life as per Indian Road Congress (IRC) standards
Cement concrete roads require only routine maintenance and these are generally designed for 20 years, as per Indian Road Congress (IRC) standards.
Quality of 12 roads under scrutiny
The Engineers India Limited (EIL) has submitted its report on the quality/status of roads which come under defect liability period (i.e. the period of around three years after construction. During this period the roads are expected to remain in good state). The civic administration had asked the EIL to submit its report on these roads. The EIL has studied 118 roads so far which are in DLP and found potholes on 12 roads.
