One of the city’s newest cement roads appears to have aged faster that the one it replaced. The road stretch from the Regional Transport Office (RTO) on Amravati Road towards Dharampeth Zenda Chowk had recently been removed and replaced with a cement road. Within a year of construction, paver blocks in the beginning of the road have started disintegrating and falling apart. A spot visit by ‘The Hitavada’ revealed that the paver blocks right at the beginning of the road on the RTO side have loosened and are coming off. The spot is riddled with deep potholes and gravel. In case of heavy rains, potholes are filled with water, and any unsuspecting pedestrian or two-wheeler rider may lose their balance and sustain injuries.

 

The road is yet another reminder of the city’s seemingly endless infrastructural problems. These problems, however, are not surprising to the local residents. Even when the cement road here neared completion, we requested the workers to fill up the potholes and at least make the surface even, but they did not give a proper response and asked us to tell the contractor about our grievances,” Ratnesh Jha, a local resident, told ‘The Hitavada’. “I have seen people across the city protesting against cement roads for various valid reasons. But not only is the administration not addressing these issues, the roads that they build are declining in quality every single day, thus reinforcing our concerns.

 

There is no accountability at any level,” he added. Only a little further ahead, an underground drainage/ sewage chamber that has been cemented on the sides, has started wearing down, and is making the surface uneven and dangerous to drive on. Additionally, a resident of Giripeth, requesting anonymity, claimed that the streetlights have also not been working properly in the area since the past week. In monsoon, lack of proper roads, potholes, and non-functioning streetlights is nothing but an accident waiting to happen. While residents admit that the tar road surface that was replaced by this cement road was also in a miserable condition, they said that a cement road was still not a necessity at all, as the road almost never sees heavy vehicles or dense traffic. Regular upkeep on the tar road would have been more time and cost efficient. The question remains -- if the first showers in the city are enough to damage the very roads that were projected to not need maintenance for decades at a time, residents are left wondering what was the need of the project.