The Public Works Department (PWD) has stepped up efforts to carry out patch works over city roads where resurfacing work began almost a week before the monsoon and were since abandoned.
Priority has been given to restoring roads within city limits. Potholes on roads in the suburbs would be filled within a fortnight, said a PWD engineer.
This is in keeping with the September 9 deadline fixed by PWD Minister V.K. Ebrahim Kunju to make all PWD roads in Ernakulam district motorable.
The same contractors who took the people and the rains for granted are engaged in filling the potholes. Work on resurfacing roads, using bituminous macadam and bituminous concrete (BMBC), has begun on a few arterial roads.
The contractors have to give an 18-month guarantee for BMBC works, while a year’s guarantee is mandatory for 40 mm and 20 mm chipping carpet works. Bituminous macadam work has been done over Shanmugham Road and Park Avenue Road, while inter-locking tiles are being laid at High Court Junction, Palarivattom and Padamugal. Patch works are under way on Palarivattom-Kakkanad Road, which has been a motorist’s nightmare since the contractor abandoned resurfacing midway. Proper repairs are yet to be done on the Vennala-Palachuvadu Road and Alinchuvadu-Vennala Road, which the PWD resurfaced in May.
“We have repeatedly issued notices to contractors to speed up repair works, but a few are lazy or indifferent to the plight of road users,” said PWD sources.
Potholes are being filled on Edappally Toll Junction-Kangarapady Road and Kaloor-Pottakuzhi Curch Road.
Repairs will begin in a few days on Palarivattom-St. Martin’s Church Road and BTS Road in Edappally. Dilapidated roads in Kalamassery, West Kochi, Tripunithura and Vypeen too would be repaired by mid-September, they said.
While the PWD and the civic agencies have begun repairing roads under their jurisdiction, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has done nothing to repair the ill-maintained and accident-prone Edappally-Aroor NH 47 Bypass.
