The Times of India             14.08.2013

Pune Municipal Corporation repairs over 2,000 potholes

PUNE: Over 2,100 potholes have been repaired in the last fortnight by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). The civic administration has claimed that pothole-related complaints have reduced and civic officials said around 370 potholes were fixed on Tuesday.

"The road department along with the ward offices has been carrying out pothole repairs since the end of July. Processes such as milling were done beforehand. New technologies such as micro surfacing have been used for the repairs," said Pramod Nirbhavane, head of road department, told TOI.

A total of 336 complaints were received by the PMC's helpline since the start of the monsoon. "The helpline would receive an average of 10 complaints per day which has gone down to three per day since a fortnight," the officials added.

Potholes have made roads risky for commuters. Several roads have been damaged due to the loosening of the asphalted material making them accident-prone. Civic activists and citizens have blamed the poor quality of roads.

Road repairs were carried out on Senapati Bapat, Ganeshkhind, Pashan, University of Pune, Bavdhan, Paud, Karve, Fergusson College and Ghole roads, Balgandharva, Shimla office, S G Barve, Ghavane and Chandni chowks, Nal stop, Shivnerinagar, and areas in Kondhwa Budruk, Kothrud and Deccan.

Meanwhile, the standing committee on Tuesday gave its approval for blacklisting contractors for poor quality of road work. The committee also decided to confiscate their deposits.

Appeal to Ganeshmandals

A few mandals have dug up roads to put up pandals for Gokulashtami and Ganeshotsav. "The civic administration has appealed to them not to dig up roads. The mandals should follow the instructions. There are other methods to set up tents and pandals which should be promoted and used," said Pramod Nirbhavane, head of the road department.

The Hindu               14.08.2013

Cutting charges to be used to restore roads

Staff Reporter

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has decided to utilise the road cutting charges collected from residents towards restoration of the road.

In a circular issued on Tuesday, BBMP Commissioner M. Lakshminarayan said the city’s roads were routinely dug up to provide drinking water, drainage and power connections to individual houses. However, the roads were not restored to their original state after the work by the other civic agencies. This had led to deterioration of the roads and inconvenienced road users.

Mr. Lakshminarayan has directed the officials to ensure that they collect the road cutting charges and only then issue permission for road cutting. The charges should be deposited in the account of the jurisdictional executive engineer, who can use the funds (not more than Rs. 5 lakh at a time) to restore the road.

The Assistant Finance Controller concerned should issue job codes to this work only if it has the administrative and technical approval.

The road restoration may be executed through Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Ltd.

To ensure that the funds are not misused, the officials have been directed to send a detailed monthly report on the total charges collected and spent to the Commissioner through the chief engineer and Additional Commissioner (Finance). If the funds do not tally, the executive engineer would be held responsible, the circular has stated.

The circular was issued following the inspection by Upa Lokayukta S.B. Majage last month. He had lambasted the officials for failing to check the indiscriminate road cutting by various agencies.

Issue permission for road cutting only after collecting charges: BBMP