More city byroads may be relaid using good quality surfacing materials if an effort of the Kochi Corporation succeeds.
The Kochi Corporation will soon approach the State government with a request seeking support for tarring some of the roads that connects important city thoroughfares. The Public Works Department had earlier initiated a project for relaying some of the important city roads using bitumen macadam cement concrete, a combination used for laying major roads.
Though the initial project was to relay 13 city roads, the PWD authorities could redo as many as 35 roads using the funds allotted earlier. The government had stepped in to support the City Corporation when the roads were damaged.
After completing the roads scheduled earlier, the allotted funds and materials were used in the city itself for repairing the connecting roads, said Soumini Jain, chairperson of the Works Standing Committee of the Kochi Corporation.
The Department has completed nearly three-fourths of the road works it had promised to undertake in the city. The intermittent rain the city had been receiving delayed the road works to some extent.
The department will begin the work in the West Kochi area after completing the job in the central city area, she said.
Though the PWD utilised the construction materials allotted for the road works to new roads that were not listed earlier, a few more connecting roads remain to be completed. This includes roads near the Ernakulam market Road, Warriam Road and Kizhavana Road. Though these roads are not as wide as the major city roads, they handle a considerable volume of vehicular traffic and hence needs to be relaid, she said.
Order necessary
The PWD officials are of the view that a government order is necessary for taking up new road works. The Corporation plans to approach the government with the request, Ms. Jain said.
Even if the government refuses to loosen its purse strings for the project, the Corporation will be able to carry out the work but with lesser quality materials.
The funds of the Kochi Corporation from the People’s Plan project may have to be used for the road work. In that case, the Corporation will have to scale down the quality of the road work from that of the PWD norm to 40mm chipping carpet, a specification followed for laying the city roads, she said.
