Journalism of Courage
While potholes pose a potent threat to life and limb of commuters on city roads,the culprit who has made their life miserable is none other than the Pune Municipal Corporation that collects tax from its citizens but has clearly failed to ensure their safety.
In a straight-faced acceptance of its guilt,the civic road department officials on Friday admitted that the work orders for resurfacing and repair of roads were issued only towards the end of May due to which no worthwhile work could be completed.
The PMC thus in clear-cut terms has conceded that there was a lapse on its part unlike a few days ago when the civic chief said excess rain was to blame for the road plight.
Blaming the horrendous condition of citys roads to lack of preparedness and paucity of funds,Additional Chief Engineer and in-charge of PMCs road department Pramod Nirbhavne on Friday said the civic administration has identified 150 pothole-ridden roads in the past few days.
Potholes have appeared in patches in several parts of these roads and a lack of proper resurfacing is the main reason for this, he said. He said that although the work orders for resurfacing was supposed to be out in April this year,they were issued towards the end of May.
Monsoons hit the city in the first week of May. So work of resurfacing could not be completed. The total budget for resurfacing of the roads was around Rs 15 crore and we could finish only around 40 per cent of the work before the rains started, he said.
Asked about the delay in the issuing the work order,Nirbhavne said,It was a lapse on the issue of civic body.
Senior civic officials said over the past three years,budget head for road work has been decreasing continuously at the instance of the corporators.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity,civic officers said the standing committee chairman has forced 10 per cent cuts in the budget head of road works this year. The money,according to the officers are diverted to other works. This year,the municipal budget has earmarked Rs 267 crore for road work,while Rs 170 crore have been spent already.
According to Nirbhavane,the issue of potholes has become endemic at Paud Road,Karve Road,Chandani Chowk and Suskhind Road. Potholes have also appeared on the Pune-Satara Road,Pune-Ahmednagar Road,Sinhagad Road and Pune-Solapur Road,which were laid under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) funds. The civic body spent around Rs 58 crore for Paud Road,Rs 24 crore for Karve Road,Rs 24 croe for Pune-Satara Road,Rs 25 crore for Pune-Solapur Road and Rs 101 crore for the entire stretch of Pune-Ahmednagar Road.
Asked about the cost of laying of the other roads,Nirbhavane said that on an average the PMC spends Rs 200 per square metre for laying any road.
With 20 major contractors working on road-laying work,Nirbhavane said that this year not a single contractor has been backlisted for inferior road work. We have a lock in period of three to five years,where in the contractor is held responsible for any fault appearing on the roads. We keep one to four per cent of the total contract money as security deposit,and refund it once the lock in period is over, he said.
However,when asked about action taken against contractors for the pothole-marked roads,he said the civic body has to go through a laborious process before taking any action against contractors. We will have to check the tenders,the work orders to see if the lock-in period is on and only then would we be able to take action, he said.
In the past few days,he said,the civic body has received 285 complaints about potholes. We have started work on a war-footing,using both hot and cold mix to repair the roads. We are confident we would be able to complete the work within the next two days, he said.
