Downpour delays road repair

PUNE: If you were expecting your pathetically-potholed road to be repaired on a "war-footing", as was promised by Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi a month ago, then hold on.
Kalmadi, who has considerable influence over the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), with its Rs 1,200 crore budget, acknowledged to TNN on Friday that the "war-footing" exercise never really took off "because of the continuous downpour in the last one month".
Three days after his press conference on August 6, the city Congress unit had issued a newspaper advertisement, proclaiming: "We, on a warfooting, will fill these potholes within the coming two weeks! (sic)".
Asked about the promise, Kalmadi on Friday said he was not satisfied with the road repair works in the city, which slowed down considerably because of incessant rains.
Speaking to TNN from New Delhi, Kalmadi said that although an effort was made to repair the roads on a war-footing, much of the exercise was a waste as the repairs got washed out in the rains.
"We have now decided to wait till the rain stops and get four clear days of sunshine. Everything is ready and the machinery is on standby. We just need four days of clear sunshine to get the work done," Kalmadi said.
City Congress president Abhay Chhajed, who previously headed PMC's city improvement committee (CIC), said the road condition worsened alarmingly this year because of factors like the three lakh metres of trenches dug by telecom companies and unprecedented rains.
Also, Chhajed attributed the problem to the fact that a number of major roads had not been touched for the last two years, as their comprehensive development was awaited under PMC's Integrated Road Development Project (IRDP).
"The IRDP project has been allocated Rs 194 crore in the current budget, and a provision of Rs 150 crore has been planned in the next budget. About 90 major roads, including those in Sadashiv Peth, Paud, Kothrud , Ahmednagar road, Ganeshkhind, Aundh and other areas, have been identified for a complete overhaul under this project," Chhajed said.
He said that while the MSRDC's (Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation) Rs 650-crore proposal for roads and flyovers in Pune had been approved "in principle", the MSRDC would commission work on some elevated roads planned for the city, while the PMC would work on some other roads.