Bhopal: Public Works Department Yet To Assess Overall Road Damage

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): As monsoon season draws to a close, Public Works Department is yet to prepare estimate as to how many roads it maintains were damaged due to rains this year and how much money is needed for their repair. Though it has decided to undertake survey of 38,000-km long roads, survey of only 10,000-km road has been done, a senior PWD official said.

The survey of remaining roads will be done in a phased manner. Engineer-in-Chief, PWD, RK Mehra said department was doing survey to know the extent of damage suffered by roads in monsoon. Estimates will be prepared to know how much money will be needed for renovation. Accordingly, tenders will be floated.

In the initial survey of 10,000-km long roads, 1368 potholes or ditches were found and are being mended. The roads will be renovated either through asphaltation or through white topping. The white topping work is done by using cement and will cost Rs 350 crore.

PWD Road Contractors Association president RK Gupta said in comparison to previous monsoon period, roads got damaged more this time. The main reason was excessive rains and waterlogging on roads where there is no drainage system. A department engineer said mines have started in villages. Hence the village roads can’t bear the load. The repair work has been carried out but asphaltation of roads is necessary. For asphaltation-related works, projects have been prepared.