Damaged roads largely outside warranty period

Contractors of only 25 % of roads battered in recent rains may have to repair them

Corporation officials identified 847 damaged stretches in the city’s 15 zones. Photo: R. Ragu

Only over 25 per cent of the city roads that were damaged during the recent rains are within the warranty period, requiring contractors to repair the roads. This period is usually three years.

As many as 10 roads that were covered in the warranty — or the ‘defect liability’ period, as the Corporation calls it — have already been repaired by contractors. “Contractors of 61 roads will get seven days’ time for repairing the roads that have been identified as damaged so far,” according to official sources.

A team of quality control engineers, with the assistance of ward-level staff, commenced screening of over 33,000 roads last week, identifying 847 damaged stretches in 15 zones.

The civic body has decided to initially repair the roads on its own on some stretches and later recover costs from the contractors.

According to Corporation sources, of the total 847 roads identified so far, 745 are interior roads and 102 are bus route roads. Quality control engineers have fixed the repair value of the interior roads at Rs. 3.5 crore and the latter at Rs. 1 crore.  

However, contractors say that as per the legal contract, they are exempt from paying for repair in cases where the civic body has issued permission for roads cuts. This is the case with 80 interior roads.

The screening of roads damaged during this week’s rain will begin next week, an official said.