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Road Development

City roads to be made damage-free for 5 years

Saturday, 24 August 2013 06:39 administrator
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The New Indian Express            24.08.2013

City roads to be made damage-free for 5 years

The state government is preparing an action plan to repair Hyderabad roads so that commuters will not face any problem in the next five years.

As the roads in Hyderabad were being damaged every year due to rains, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Friday directed officials concerned to prepare an action plan within a week and repair the roads.

“The repairs of roads will be taken up this time to ensure that there will be no problem for commuters for the next five years”, minister Danam Nagender told reporters after the review meeting with the chief minister.

“What are you doing to solve the problem? Why are roads getting damaged after each rainy season? Why is this happening frequently? I want a comprehensive road action plan within a week”, the Chief Minister told officials during the review meet at the Secretariat.

He told the officials that funds would not be a problem to take up road repairs. The Chief Minister directed the officials that the road repair and maintenance should be taken up on a war-footing basis.

The Chief Minister would have another review meeting after the officials submit an action plan to him.

Officials said that considerable damages to roads in GHMC were due to the excessive rains during the season. GHMC commissioner MT Krishna Babu said that there were excess rains in June, July and August compared to previous years.

Roads were damaged due to the incessant rains very frequently and also because of the stagnant water. He said that the total rainfall received in the GHMC area during this monsoon from June 1 to August 22 was 512 mm against the normal 406 mm. This was 26.1 per cent excess rain, he explained.

“The number of rainy days were 12 in June and 17 in July and 15 in August with minimum dry spells. Due to continuous and incessant rainy days for 3 to 4 days and changed rainfall pattern with occasional flash flooding and inundation, the BT Roads were damaged or worn out and big potholes and large damaged stretches occurred”, said the officials.

Out of the 6,780 km road network in the GHMC area, about 300 km length belong to R&B and NH departments which were main corridors, and the remaining 6,480 km were under the GHMC.  Further, the Secunderabad Cantonment Board was also maintaining roads in the Cantonment Board Area.

The extent of road length damaged was identified as 61.135 km at 2,739 locations in the GHMC area. Officials informed that so for 15,310 number of potholes were identified and 13,501 potholes were  filled with Bitumen Mix. So far, 39.54 km roads have been improved.

 

Mumbai: BMC has to fill 3,000 potholes by tomorrow

Saturday, 24 August 2013 05:45 administrator
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Hindustan Times               24.08.2013

Mumbai: BMC has to fill 3,000 potholes by tomorrow

A day before the deadline to fill all the potholes in the city ends, more than 3,000 potholes, that had been reported on the pothole tracking system, are yet to be attended to.

According to figures in the tracking system, a total 28,257 potholes have been reported since June. Of these, 25,105 potholes had been filled till Friday evening. However, the figure is a conservative estimate as a number of potholes in the city have gone unreported.

Under fire for the pothole mess, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had set a deadline of August 25 to fill all potholes before the festive season begins. “I have asked all contractors to increase their manpower and machinery to close potholes immediately,” additional municipal commissioner SVR Srinivas had said. The standing committee had been assured that all of the city’s potholes would be filled before the deadline.

But the additional municipal commissioner changed his stand on Friday. “We had said that all potholes on the procession routes will be filled; I believe they are all smooth now,” he said.

In the meanwhile, the civic body and the utility agencies have been involved in a blame game. Private agencies that have been asked to refill the potholes have said that the road engineers, in an attempt to meet the deadline, have assigned them potholes which were not dug up by them in the first place.

“There have been arguments between road engineers and private utility agencies over this (the filling of potholes). This is affecting the entire pothole filling process,” said a source in the civic body on the condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

The civic administration has also said that after the August 25 deadline, it will fill all the potholes that have remained unattended by other agencies.

 

BBMP engineers get 10 days’ time to fill potholes, clear debris

Friday, 23 August 2013 05:06 administrator
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The Hindu               23.08.2013 

BBMP engineers get 10 days’ time to fill potholes, clear debris

Staff Reporter

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) engineers have been given 10 days’ time to get their act together and fill the increasing number of potholes on the city’s roads, clear debris and garbage dumped indiscriminately across the city. This direction was issued by Transport and city in-charge Minister Ramalinga Reddy on Wednesday.

The Minister met with the BBMP’s zonal additional/ joint commissioners, chief engineers, executive engineers and ward-level engineers here. He noted that the directions had been issued even during the previous review meetings and inspections. BBMP Commissioner M. Lakshminarayan too had released funds for the engineers to take up these works.

“It is unfortunate that not much has been achieved. The potholes remain on our roads affecting the movement of vehicles. This is the last warning. If there is no progress, the officials who are working in the BBMP on deputation will be repatriated to their parent departments. Disciplinary action will be initiated against BBMP engineers as well,” he warned.

Later, he sought details of the number of potholes filled and those pending from the zonal commissioners.

He warned them against providing false information and stated that he would inspect the city after 10 days. He pointed out that potholes on Hosur Road, Hosur Lashkar Road, St. Philomena Hospital junction, Trinity Circle, Ulsoor Road, Shantinagar, Nrupatunga Road, Vijayanagar Main Road and Mysore Road remain unfilled.

Empathy needed

“If you sit in your offices, you will not know how the citizens are being inconvenienced. The engineers must routinely inspect their jurisdictions,” he said, and added that Mr. Lakshminarayan would grant one-time approval to clear the debris.

Pradeep Singh Kharola, managing director of Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd., said the BMRCL would repair the stretches under Namma Metro alignment. Mr. Lakshminarayan said that while the BBMP’s road infrastructure department would fill potholes on arterial and sub-arterial roads, ward level engineers are responsible to maintain the other roads in the city.

Mayor D. Venkatesh Murthy was present.

Last Updated on Friday, 23 August 2013 05:11
 
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