The district administration has started acting on its warning that haphazard and careless digging up of roads would not be allowed. District Collector Biju Prabhakar on Monday issued instructions to cancel the licence of a contractor and to disconnect water connections supplied in a residential colony near Peroorkada in the city after the contractor failed to properly restore the road he dug up for the purpose.
An official statement said the road near the Erappoozhi Junction on the Peroorkada-Mannanthala road was dug up to extend water connections to the area adjoining the Eden Gardens Residents’ Association without the mandatory prior approval from the district-level Public Utility Coordination Committee. The Assistant Executive engineer concerned had been directed to cancel the licence of the contractor, C. Sudarman of Mukkolakkal, and also to register a case against Mr. Sudarman for making the road unusable for traffic by covering up the dug up portion by merely placing concrete slabs over the trench.
Directions have been issued to terminate the water connections as well, Mr. Prabhakar said in the statement. Proceedings to recover restoration charges from the consumer would also be initiated shortly. The action comes in the wake of a warning that the Collector had issued earlier this month that haphazard digging up of roads and irresponsible and improper restoration of the trenches thus formed would be dealt with stringently.
The Collector reiterated that the public, and the contractors they employed, would have to adhere to the set of guidelines issued by the district administration in this regard. The guidelines included prior approvals from the district-level Public Utility Coordination Committee, the engineers concerned of the Corporation, Public Works department and the PWD NH division, depending on which road was to be dug up for private purposes, primarily water connections.
If the road was under the Kerala Road Fund Board, approval of the the KRFB too was mandatory.
