Only 55 ‘very poor’ or ‘poor’ roads require recarpeting, not all: Figures

“All these years a stereotype method was applied. According to that, whichever road completed five years, whether it required recarpeting or not, it would be recarpeted. So, this time I asked for details of which roads recarpeted five years ago are in good or poor condition,” Gupta told The Indian Express.

While 55 roads are those which are either disintegrated or have developed depressions or potholes or are in very poor or poor condition, there are over 10 stretches of roads that are in good condition and do not require recarpeting. All these stretches fall within the jurisdiction of different divisions of Chandigarh civic body, estimates of which have been prepared. It has been proposed that Rs 34 crore will be spent on these roads — Rs 14 crore in division one and Rs 20 crore in division two.

The very poor stretches include V3 road dividing sectors 44 and 45 which, they said, was recarpeted in 2017, V6 roads of sector 51A, 51B,, 34D, 35B, sector 49C which have been found to be in “poor” condition. During inspection, it was found that the V5 road in Sector 51 has its top layer disintegrated. All these roads were made in 2016 or 2017.

During inspection, it was found that the V3 road in sector 40-41 is poor and there are a “number of potholes and cracks developed at various locations”. This road was last recarpeted in 2017. The V6 road in Sector 38C has also been found to be in poor along with V5 road of Sector 54 and that of fish market in Sector 41. All these fell within the jurisdiction of division one.

Under division 2, several stretches were found in poor or very poor condition too.

The V3 roads of sector 27/2, 27/30,19/27 all have been found to have cracks and potholes, or top layer damaged or disintegrated surface.

Then V6 roads of sectors 20D, 27D, 29A, 30B, V4 roads of sector 45 have been found is absolutely poor or very poor condition.

According to the details, the V5 roads in sectors 31A,B,C, Sector 33A and B, C and D all have cracks and potholes. All these were recarpeted in 2017.

“The condition of various roads under the jurisdiction of Road Divisions is poor and these roads have developed depressions / cracks and undulation. The re-carpeting of these roads is due as per prevaling policy of Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh. Accordingly. this proposal amounting to Rs 20 crore has been prepared to meet the expenses for re-carpeting of various roads for the year (2022-2023) under the jurisdiction of Road Division No. 2,” one of the agenda items stated.

The civic body mentioned that these roads were earlier re-carpeted before March 2018 as per last date of carpeting indicated and “renewal coat of re-carpeting is due as per policy of Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh. Tender for the works will be called separately according to the scope of work”.

It was also mentioned that the scope of work taken in this estimate has not been taken in äny earlier approved estimate and this work will be charged under head “improvement of road/ parking places & infrastructure facilities”.

Maintenance can increase lifespan of roads for 20 yrs

To ensure long-lasting good roads in Chandigarh, a 20-year ‘Rectification and Preservation Plan” for roads under Pavement Maintenance Management system had been proposed by the National Institute Of Technical Teachers Training and Research, Chandigarh. It was stated that timely maintenance of the city roads done like just a periodic spray can increase the lifespan of the road. It can also prevent the emergence of cracks or potholes which develop into big craters and further deterioration of the road.

Experts had said that just a spray done periodically after routine inspection can help road restore its original life. “Fog spray and slurry seals” were recommended to be used for road maintenance which helps increase the
life of roads.

While fog spray is a light application of diluted bitumen emulsion to the road surface, slurry seal too is the application of a mixture of water, asphalt emulsion, aggregate and additives to the road surface as a maintenance measure.