On the yellow brick road

Second, have a layer of large rocks, then smaller stones, and bind the whole lot with gravel or slag and, in later technology, with asphalt cement or hot tar. Finally, add a third layer to fill gaps.

If you visit PWD Delhi8217;s website, you will learn a lot more. There is trench-less technology, enabling you to work beneath road surfaces without digging trenches. Pre-cast segmental construction technology enables you to build flyovers with little dislocation to traffic.

Cold emulsion technology does away with the need for traditional bitumen in surfacing. Or you can use crumb rubber modified bitumen on road surfaces. Finally, there are pollution-free hot-mix plants. By the way, Delhi is now experimenting with cement concrete technology instead of bitumen mixes. Therefore, one should believe that we have left the era of building roads with bricks behind. That was for the Chaldeans in Babylon or the Indus Valley Civilisation.

So why are so many Delhi roads repaired with bricks and nothing else? Delhi roads conjure up many images: road rage, pollution, accidents, cows, VIP movements, eve-teasing. Those are bigger issues.

I am concerned with this wonderful infrastructure development taking place through new flyovers, roads and bridges. Down come the rains and the wonder vanishes. No one has read McAdam8217;s books. So roads are below the adjacent ground.

Potholes appear. Roads disappear. Some cave in. Cars take a beating. Mind you, I am not talking about old roads. Freshly built ones are no different. Of course, they are being quickly rebuilt and re-surfaced. What with? bricks. Anyone who drives around in Delhi will give you innumerable instances.

I have a hunch this is deliberate policy. Surely, the argument blaming the Supreme Court isn8217;t serious. The court pushed out polluting hot-mix plants. Hence, material for constructing and repairing roads is no longer available. You have to use bricks.

That8217;s the gist of the argument, which must be nonsense. In a labour surplus country, you need labour intensive technology. If roads are built to last, unemployment becomes an issue. Therefore, roads must be in perpetual state of disrepair. If it isn8217;t deliberate policy, the question of who is responsible irresponsible arises. This is a perpetual problem in Delhi. What with Central Government, State Government, DDA, MCD, NDMC, you don8217;t know who is to blame.

I tried the Delhi government website. The opening menu gives you 8220;road show glimpses8221;. However, that8217;s a different kind of road. That section is about an IT road show. But there is also a section on four years of development; 16 major completed flyovers and 44 planned flyovers-cum-grade separators find mention. There is also Rs 380 crore obtained from the Urban Development Fund for constructing flyovers and constructing and strengthening roads. So far as flyovers are concerned, construction responsibility vests with PWD, DDA, MCD and Delhi Transport and Tourism Development Corporation DTTDC.

I moved on to the PWD8217;s website, which also has a Citizens8217; Charter. That tells you PWD has the responsibility for 8220;maintenance, repair, preservation, protection and conservation of vast stock of public assets8221;, like 2338 km of Master Plan roads. Before you can blame the PWD, you therefore need to know whether it is a Master Plan road or not. To help you in your search, there is a roadmap, divided into four zones. Some roads I have identified as brick-repaired are indeed Master Plan roads. Judging from signs put up at the time of road construction and from a tender section on PWD8217;s website, Master Plan roads are not necessarily built by PWD. There are contractors. When you buy a product, there is a system of guarantee or warranty. When PWD awards contracts, isn8217;t there a system of guarantees? Are relevant clauses enforced? What action has been taken against contractors who built these sub-standard roads? Is there a registration system? Have their registrations now been cancelled? Delhi is one of the few states that proudly brandishes a Right to Information Act. Isn8217;t this the kind of information citizens should have a right to? But on PWD8217;s website, I drew a complete blank.

I next tried Municipal Corporation of Delhi. After all, Delhi Municipal Corporation Act of 1957 says the obligatory functions of MCD include 8220;the construction, maintenance, alteration and improvements of public streets, bridges, culverts, causeways and the like8221;. The MCD website is worse than the PWD8217;s. In the engineering section, I learnt, 8220;to cater to the need of vehicular traffic of 35 lacs vehicles, Engineering Department has provided good quality riding surface roads, flyovers, RUBs/ROBs, pedestrian subways and multi-level car/scooter parkings.8221; I am not sure, but I think RUBs are railway under-bridges and ROBs are railway over-bridges. Nothing more, except that you can complain about repairing of potholes. Also, MCD 8220;has always given great importance to the speedy removal of public complaints.8221; Note the careful choice of words. Public complaints will not have speedy redressal. They will be speedily removed.

Perhaps understandably, NDMC8217;s website is superior. The New Delhi Municipal Council Act of 1994 also has similar obligatory functions for NDMC. NDMC is responsible for 1290 km of roads. And the civil engineering section of the website will tell you which roads the three road maintenance divisions are responsible for. Once there is a complaint, potholes will be filled within two days, patch repairs will be done within one week, obstruction from roads will be removed within one working day and so on. NDMC also has citizen8217;s responsibilities on roads. For instance, 8220;no person should damage any public road/street/parks8221; or 8220;all the roads in the private premises should be leveled, paved with adequate drainage provision8221;.

I still don8217;t know who is responsible for the bricks.