The pre-monsoon repairs in the road network maintained by the Public Works Department (PWD) in the 140 Assembly constituencies of the State will be completed by May 31.
A meeting of the PWD superintending engineers and executive engineers of 14 districts here on Thursday chaired by Minister for Public Works G. Sudhakaran finalised the roadmap to complete works before monsoon.
The newly formed maintenance wing of the PWD will be responsible for the pre-monsoon works. In all the 140
Assembly constituencies, Assistant Engineers has been designated to take care of the execution of repair works.
A sum of ₹10 lakh each has been sanctioned for 130 assembly constituencies and ₹5 lakh reach for the other 10 constituencies where only minor repairs are needed. The Minister said only urgent works will be carried out and the excess amount saved by a constituency will be given to other constituencies that need more money for completing repairs,
As part of ensuring quality of work and to check corruption, the social audit committee headed by the district panchayat president will monitor the repair works . Major maintenance works will be carried out after the monsoon in September and October.
Permission will not be given during the June 1-July 31 period for digging the roads to lay cables of the utility agencies or to lay drinking water pipes in the State. In case of pipe burst during monsoon, the Minister said the PWD executive engineer and the Kerala Water Authority will jointly inspect the site and take a call.
Damage to PWD roads had been checked to some extend following repair works taken up under the State Level Task Force during the last financial year, the Minister said.
The PWD engineers have also been asked to ensure that there is no duplication of repair work where the works under the NABARD, Plan and CRF are on. The executive engineers have been told to include removal of silt from the drain and clearing the undergrowth under the employment guarantee scheme of the respective local body. The Minister said he had written to the Minister for Local Administration in this regard.
