The Hindu : New Delhi News : Rain exposes civic agencies

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 25, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Rain exposes civic agencies

By Sujay Mehdudia

The state of affairs near the Raja Garden flyover on Tuesday where the overnight rains have completely exposed the quality of roads. Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

NEW DELHI, AUG. 24. It took just an overnight downpour to expose the deficiencies of the civic agencies in the Capital, particularly those involved with the maintenance of roads and drains.

It was a bad day for motorists of the Capital on Tuesday as they had to steer through potholed roads making driving a nightmare and causing thick traffic jams at several places. The rain caused extensive damage to roads, some of which had been re-laid only recently.

Reports of waterlogging and choking of drains continued to pour in throughout the day. In view of the deteriorating situation, the Delhi Mayor, A.R Verma, convened an emergency meeting to review the situation. Incidentally, this time even the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has come in for flak for poor maintenance of roads along their construction sites.

The roads worst hit by waterlogging were Adichini on Aurobindo Marg, Malviya Nagar, Pushp Vihar, Saket, R.K. Puram, Kalkaji, Govindpuri, Okhla, Ma Anandmai Marg, Ring Road near Model Town and Azadpur, the G.T. Karnal Road near Jehangirpuri and Azadpur, Derawal Nagar, Mukherjee Nagar, Autram Line, Indira Vihar, Mehrauli-Badarpur Road, Khapur and Batra Hospital stretch road and more than two other dozen places. In fact, the situation was worst on those roads where the construction work for flyovers and under-bridges is underway. Motorists on these stretches had a bad day with traffic jams being reported from various parts of the city.

Interestingly, some of the major roads had been recently dense carpeted by the Public Works Department, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and at some places by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.

The drive along the road from Mukerjee Nagar crossing from where the Metro Rail construction work of Delhi University begins till the Metcalf House stretch, the Metro Rail maintained roads have developed huge potholes and given way at many places.

Waterlogging took place on the Metro Rail road stretch in front of the Delhi Assembly. Also the stretch between Netaji Subhash Place at Pitampura and till Rithala, which was recently repaired by the Metro Rail Corporation developed huge potholes and cracked at many places hampering smooth movement of traffic.

The situation was no different on Ring Road where big potholes have developed putting a question mark over the claims of the Delhi Government that it had recently pumped in huge money to dense carpet the entire 48-km stretch of Ring Road. With the monsoon season mid-way, the damage in the coming days is likely to increase substantially.

What is even more shocking is the manner in which repair of these roads was undertaken. Instead of using the latest technology, the road building and maintenance agencies often dump sand and stones making a mockery of the claims that new innovative methods of road construction are being adopted.

"The Delhi Government should pay compensation to me for causing damage to my vehicle. The potholes and bad roads have caused problems in my car and I will have to shell out money for repair for no fault of mine," remarked Neeraj Sethi, a resident of Naraina.

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