Nagpur: The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has failed to learn lessons and continued shoddy road repair works, prompting strictures from the Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court. Within a week of being restored, several roads were lost. Beginning from the lake to HB Estate T-point, it has been in bad shape for the last couple of years. Every day, the road is experiencing huge traffic. The civic body began fixing potholes and bad surface layers throughout the area, either through its hot mix department or private agencies, after the strictures of HC. Accordingly, patchworks on Sonegaon Road were done by the NMC’s hot mix department from the start of the lake to HB Estate a week ago.
Last week, the city experienced a few days of medium to heavy rains. Gravels that are part of the asphalt have since begun to loosen up. Most of the repair work came off on Monday. Now, it looks like a huge amount of gravel has been dumped on the whole patch.
These patches now pose a threat to drivers. Gravel has accumulated along the roadside in a few areas, and the entire area has been modulated.
The situation on Sahakar Nagar Road, Jaiprakash Nagar Road and a couple of stretches of London Street is close. On the newly patched areas, even potholes have appeared in some locations.
Also damaged was the stretch from Amravati Road to MLA Hostel that passes through Priyadarshini Colony. The repair work was performed during October’s assembly elections.
The period of road works ‘ defect liability, including total asphalting and patchworks, is considered to be three years.
Earlier, similar complaints were made against NMC’s private agencies about inferior work quality. Most corporators said most of the NMC’s hot mix department’s asphalting work is satisfactory. But the same department repaired all the roads mentioned above.
The HC had acknowledged the report by TOI on bad roads that caused accidents. Hearing the PIL, the HC imposed strictures on the NMC and ordered the municipal commissioner to take stern action against the execution of shoddy works by officials and private agencies.
Nevertheless, the NMC has failed to improve road repair work quality. Ulhas Debadwar, chief engineer of NMC, made sure to look into the issue and ensure proper work efficiency.
