Bumpy rides continue to harass Meerut commuters

AGRA: After taking over the reins of Uttar Pradesh, chief minister Yogi Adityanath in April directed the authorities concerned to make all state roads pothole-free by June 15. It looks like a distant dream now, with some local administrations across the state saying that the target cannot be achieved even in the next six months, and some claiming that the work would only be completed by June-end or end of July.

In Meerut, for example, roads — even outside government offices such as the Housing and Development Board, divisional commissioner’s office,

Meerut

Development Authority — are still in a bad shape.

Meerut Municipal Corporation

(MMC) has, however, claimed that it had repaired most potholes in the city and that the remaining ones would be made smooth by the end of the day on June 15. “Most of the pot holes have been repaired. A few potholes are there and we hope to fill these up by the end of June 15,” said Kulbhushan Varshney, MMC chief engineer.

Despite the tall claims of the MMC, commuters continue to experience bumpy rides on city roads, with the authorities turning a blind eye to their problems. “There are several roads where no repair work has been carried out. The road outside my home in

Shubash Nagar

is riddled with potholes, and there are many roads that lie in disrepair. CM Yogi Adityanath's order, it seems, has been disregarded by the authorities concerned,” said Rajesh Singh, a resident of Subhash Nagar.

“The administration has done nothing to repair the roads. In fact, we citizens got together to repair a few potholes on some roads in our neighbourhood, so as to prevent accidents. I have not seen the municipal corporation doing anything to repair potholes on city roads,” said Rajesh Kumar, a resident of Prabhat Nagar.

In Agra, more than half of the total 5,978.53 km of roads in four districts of the division are still in poor condition. According to sources, the zila panchayats and the mandi parishad have been slow to pick up pace. In many cases, even road repair tenders have not been floated. The Agra Development Authority (ADA) okayed the tenders for road repairing work on the eve of the June 15 deadline. The Agra Municipal Corporation (

AMC

) is almost 50% short of the target.

Additional divisional commissioner Prabhat Singh said, “Road repairing work is going on at a rapid pace. Officials of the departments concerned have been directed to ensure pothole-free roads at the earliest. We are also ensuring that quality work is taking place. It will take a few days more after July 15 for suitable compliance of the CM's order. Difficulty faced by departments concerned due to the newly introduced e-tendering process is one of the major reasons behind the delay.”

According to sources, in Agra division, a total of 5,978.53 km roads were to be made pothole-free by July 15. Of this, 3,322.76 km (56%) of the roads were repaired till June 6, but more than 40% roads are still riddled with potholes. ADA is the worst performer; it has just started road repair work. On Wednesday, a day before deadline of June 15, various road repairing tenders were approved by ADA officials.

ADA secretary Hariram said, “We are winding up the tender process. Road repairing work will start soon. Work orders to make six roads pothole-free have been issued.”

Under its pothole-free campaign, ADA identified 13 roads for repair work. Though the total length of these roads is 56 km, only 6.5 km of road was supposed to be repaired.

Meanwhile, the rural engineering department has completed its target, with Public Works Department repairing 75% of the roads under its jurisdiction.

Besides ADA, the mandi parishad and the irrigation department also took the chief minister's order casually. Of the targeted 278.20 km of road repairing work, the mandi parishad (

State Agriculture Produce Marketing Board

) has completed only 18% of the work. The irrigation department has managed to repair less than 5% of the targeted 182.02 km.

The municipal corporation of Agra, too, has failed to meet the deadline. Around 50% of the targeted road repairing work is still pending. City roads are riddled with potholes. Besides, quality of recently done patchwork has come into question. Agra Municipal Corporation had set target of repairing 70.57 km of roads in the city by June 15.

Following orders of the state government, AMC identified 376 roads that were in poor condition. Various road repair works are currently in progress, and minor repair work has been done on over 75 km of roads. Small potholes and damages to the upper layer on 150 of the identified roads have been repaired but major repair work is still pending on about 100 roads.

According to AMC officials, a total of 1,728.06 km of city roads come under the responsibility of the civic body and the repair work can be completed by June-end only.

Tarun Sharma, AMC chief engineer, said, “We are carrying out quality work, and we have maintained some stretches as 'model’ roads. Repair work is in progress and field officers have been directed to expedite the work without compromising on quality. We aim to make all city roads pothole-free by the end of June.”

(With inputs from Deepak Lavania)