“We have made several representations to our councillor, deputy
commissioner of South Zone and other senior officials but nothing has
happened so far. It was then that we decided to fix the potholes
ourselves ,” said Dr Pushpa Dass Sota, president of Triveni Apartments
Welfare Association (TAWA).

This could very well be the story
of many colonies across Delhi. Roads are riddled with potholes and even
arterial roads are in a mess. Instead of fixing the problem, civic
agencies and Delhi government are busy passing the buck. For years, the
corporation cited shortage of funds, multiplicity of agencies involved
in road-cutting for various projects and Delhi Jal Board’s leaking
pipelines and poor drainage system as prime reasons for the bad roads.
Now there are three civic bodies and Delhi government’s PWD department has taken over roads that are 60-foot wide or wider, but the blame game has not stopped.

People are now hoping that with the assembly elections just eight
months away, there will be a roadmaking spree in the last few months
with an eye on votes. This year the BJP-led corporations have allotted
an additional Rs 1 crore to each of the 272 wards. This, interestingly,
includes Rs 50 lakh for repair and maintenance of roads.

Funds and projects

After the municipal corporation was trifurcated, the fledgling civic
bodies began looking for ways to boost their revenue. While the South
Corporation is trying to recover property tax dues and widening its tax
net, civic amenities are languishing. Despite surplus funds, the
corporation has been able to spend only half the amount earmarked for
strengthening of roads, say sources. It had launched a “facelift drive”
in June last year for development and maintenance work in the wards.
Similarly , in October, it launched another scheme under which one ward
in each zone was to be developed as a model ward. At the ground level,
not much work is visible.

Similarly, the cash-strapped North Corporation
has been able to spend only Rs 34.50 crore on strengthening of roads
out of an outlay of Rs 120 crore given by Delhi government. Since its
inception, just 16 new road projects have been sanctioned.

In
East, officials say road projects worth Rs 390 crore are being executed .
“There are over 12 road projects and road strengthening work as well in
the pipeline. However, there are other agencies like Yamuna Vikas Board
and JNNURM involved in these projects. The corporation mainly carries
out road repair work. In the past one year, road repairs worth Rs 45
crore have been carried out,” said SS Yadav, Commissioner, East
Corporation.

Routine maintenance

Though the corporations have a special fund for maintenance, the work is
not done on a routine basis. “The road outside our apartment was
repaired last year. But what started as a pothole has now expanded to a
stretch of almost 100m now. I fail to understand why they can’t just
repair the potholes and have to wait for the entire road to unravel.
It’s sheer wastage of funds,” said Sachin Gupta, general secreatry,
Shivalik Apartments RWA, Patparganj. Believe it or not, there are just
two machines – one for hot compress and the other for cold compress – to
fix potholes between three corporations ! “It is difficult to get the
machines. If we don’t get them, we try to do it manually but it is not
very effective as the bitumen has to be compressed. It often comes off
soon after the work is done,” said an official in-charge of maintenance
work.

“In 2004, we prepared a maintenance plan for the roads
and the corporations have to implement them. We had pointed out some
preventive measures like repair work and new techniques but we aren’t
the implementing agency,” said PK Jain, chief scientist, Central Road
Research Institute.

Officials say they can’t do much if they
don’t have the equipment and also pass on the buck to the contractor who
is responsible for maintenance . “For the entire city, there is only
one hot and one cold machine for repairs. If the job is more than
repairing a pothole, it is the contractor’s responsibility,” said SS
Yadav, Commissioner, East Delhi Municipal Corporation. Residents,
however, are in no mood to listen to excuses. “The official in charge of
the area should be penalized for not repairing potholes and maintaining
quality of roads. It’s a shame that the roads are in such a pathetic
condition in the national capital. Pankha Road is a case in point. I get
stuck in a jam there for almost 45 minutes to an hour,” said Shweta
Saxena, who has to travel to Uttam Nagar from Lajpat Nagar every
alternate day.

Though the civic agencies get the quality of
material and the work done by contractors tested at government
laboratories, they apparently don’t maintain a centralized list of
samples which have failed the test and record of penalty imposed on a
contractor.

Blame game between civic agencies and PWD

The road leading to PVR Saket is in urgent need of repair. It is worn
out at several places and causes traffic jams during peak hours. “After
elections , we couldn’t get it repaired as the road has been transferred
to PWD,” said area councillor Anita.

Delhi government’s
decision to take over MCD roads has just added to the confusion. Now,
the civic agencies and PWD keep passing the buck. While the civic
agencies say they can’t repair the stretches as the roads have been
transferred, PWD claims that roads need dense-carpeting and patchwork
won’t work. “The roads were in a very bad condition. We have to relay
the roads and the work has already started. We have placed orders for
close to 200 roads. Rest of the roads will be taken up in a phased
manner,” said Deepak Panwar , spokesperson, PWD.