Concrete roads were meant to last 200 years claimed a political establishment while convincing citizens over need for such roads in Nagpur. The fears of Nagpurians were not unfounded as one saw during another public audit undertaken by Janmanch, a premier social organisation of city, on Sunday.

 

 

It was raining, still Team Janmanch went ahead with its schedule to undertake the exercise aimed at having on spot survey of newly constructed concrete roads across city. The way the roads are currently sinking within an year or two of construction, citizens are left aghast. For instance, the road stretch from Alankar Square till Bole petrol pump, has developed cracks at many spots.

 

 

“Politicians may belittle this as minor issues but in days to come given black cotton soil beneath the roads, cracks are bound to widen. Is public money meant to be wasted in such a way and what about accountability,” said Team Janmanch that has been at the forefront in taking up public issues in city. Questioning the role of authorities concerned that oversaw process of construction of concrete roads, Janmanch stated that if this was the new norms of quality then citizens should seriously think about their safety ahead themselves. The process of deterioration of concrete roads would start in very short time and soon potholes would be common thereby endangering life of the road users.

 

 

 

 

Ring Road: Another stretch that was taken up for scrutiny was Ring Road from near Hingna T-point till Hudkeshwar and its condition speaks for itself. Work order seems to have been liberally violated by the contractor, the contact was bagged by M/s RPS Infrastructure, and same is reflected on ground, said Team Janmanch.

 

 

At many places one could see top layers eroded and small potholes with accumulated water throughout the stretch. The officer nominated by Public Works Department (PWD) agreed that Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) has advised replacement of 270 cement panels owing to issues with its quality. There are total 11 lakh panels on the Inner Ring Road divided into packages, one starting from Hingna T-point to Mhalgi Nagar, second one till Pardi Square, and one from Kalamna to Jaripatka.

 

 

At Mangalmurti Square one could see top layer of concrete road in bad shape. The difference in panels in middle and those bordering the footpath speaks for themselves indicating that sub-standard material might have been used to cut costs, Team Janmanch alleged.

 

 

As per Work Order M-50 grade concrete was to be utilised and wherever that is used the condition of road is quite smooth and fine. But at many places along the stretch one noticed that water was accumulating on the surface indicative of sub-standard work.

 

 

This damage on upper layer is irreparable and such panels needs to be improved. However, officer from World Bank Division of PWD that is overseeing Ring Road work said CRRI has devised some chemical formula that they would sharing for providing coating on panels that have not suffered major damage.

 

 

Missing Footpath: Another marked shortcoming on Ring Road was missing footpath. This is violation of work contract that specially mentioned development of footpath along side the road. But moot question is nowhere citizens have footpath to walk-on and thereby they have to use carriage way thereby exposing themselves to dangers of passing vehicles, said Pramod Pande, President, Janmanch.

 

 

At Narendra Nagar stretch the footpath work remains incomplete and also the change over in gaps are not levelled properly leaving vehicle owners to make dangerous manoeuver. The PWD officer said that due to non releasing of grants by State Government the work of footpath remains incomplete.

 

 

For shifting electrical utility Rs. 55 crores was to be given to contractor but only Rs. 30 crores is released and for removing water pipelines Rs. seven crore was to be provided to OCW but only Rs. one crores given so far. Boulders dumped in dividers: The contractor has liberally dumped boulders and metal scraped from old tar road in between the dividers while as per contract same was to be transported 20 kms outside the city. The space between dividers was to be filled with garden soil but at Narendra Nagar one can see that remains of tar road are dumped on entire stretch.

 

 

Janmanch's Rajiv Jagtap, Naresh Kshirsagar, Ram Akhre, Dada Zode, Shrikant Doud, Suhas Khandekar, Pradeep Ninave, Pramod Ramekar, Shrikant Deole, Pralhad Kharsane, Uttamrao Sulke and others were present in Team Janmanch during the tour.