Drifting speed-breakers, concrete coming off: How one bout of rain washed away Rajkot roads

Viral video

A week ago, a resident of Mahudi in Ward 11 of Rajkot city, put up a video on social media that has since gone viral. Dilip Vora, 42, who owns an electric business, recorded the video in which he is heard describing how a speed breaker constructed recently on a cement road drifted to the side of the road.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Vora said, “During every monsoon, the area near Mahudi Chowkdi gets waterlogged. This is nothing new for us. But when in 2019, they built a 12-15-feet RCC (reinforced cement concrete) road, we hoped the situation would change as the corporation would have surely made arrangements for stormwater drainage. But that was not the case. Then they made an asphalt speed breaker on top of the cement road without anchoring it to the road. So when it rained last week, the speed breaker came off and drifted to the side of the road.”

Speaking on the current situation, Vora said, “While the road, now made of cement, doesn’t get washed away, the problem of waterlogging remains and if it rains heavily, even cars get stuck in the middle of the road. The force of the water is so strong that you cannot even cross the road.”

The Indian Express reached out to Rajkot Municipal Commissioner Tushar Sumera, who said, “We have investigated the matter and found that while the speed-breaker came off, the road remained intact. This means that there was a problem in the binding agent or technology used for the same. While this needs to be resolved, we must see that there are more than 50 such speed-breakers and only one of those has come off. Correctional measures are being taken.”

Due to the heavy rainfall, there was severe waterlogging on a 150-feet Ring Road near Gopal Chowk. This led to the excess stormwater flowing with force towards Gopal chowk through the residential area where the concrete of the road came off like a carpet.

Videos accessed by The Indian Express show concrete layers, recently laid on an existing road, have come off, and a two-wheeler struggling to make its way due to the force of the water.

Rohit Rajput, a Congress worker and a resident of the area, told The Indian Express, “The road that goes from Gopal chowk to Sadhu Vasvani Chowk turns into a river every single time it rains heavily. People cannot even cross the road due to the force of water. Add to it the fact that a 20-feet concrete layer came off over the weekend.”

Commissioner Sumera said, “This road is very old and had to be repaved. We were assured there was no compromise with quality.”

Concrete chunks

Meanwhile, residents of Laxminagar, situated behind the Bhaktinagar railway station, were spotted picking up chunks of concrete from the washed-out road in their area. The road, they said, was built less than six months ago after more than a decade of “pleading with the civic authorities to build it”.

Bhagirathsinh Jadeja, a resident of Laxminagar society no 4, who works in the transport industry, said, “I have been living in this area for the last 40 years and this was the first time in 10-15 years that we finally got a road going through our area. But instead of digging the area and then building it, these people just put a layer of concrete on the surface (of the ground) in the name of a road. So after it rained on Saturday and Sunday, it got washed away. We picked hands full of concrete.”

Commenting on the situation, the Municipal Commissioner said, “We have spoken to the residents. We will collect samples of the road and get them checked. If there is a slightest doubt regarding its quality, not a single rupee will be paid (to the contractor).”

Patchwork

Contractors working with the Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) were also seen carrying out repair works at Ward 10, on a lane in Ram Park near Vedant Society, over the weekend.