Kerala - Kochi   

Road repair works getting delayed

KOCHI: Driving along the pot-holed roads in the city has become a harrowing experience for residents as maintenance works on these roads is lagging behind schedule.

Though the local authorities had earlier announced that the road repair works in the city would commence with the weakening of the monsoon, the pot-holed roads of Kochi remain as a sad commentary on the state of affairs in the city.

It is a combination of factors namely the reluctance of the contractors to take up the work, standoff between the civic authorities and the police and the delay in completing the procedural formalities for tendering the work that has held up the road repair works in Kochi.

Many contractors are refusing to take up the work that has been tendered. Though one major contractor has promised to repair the Kaloor-Pottakuzhi road, some months ago, the work has not started, said E.M. Sunilkumar, chairman of the Town Planning committee.

Contractors are turning away from taking up the works citing the spiralling cost of construction materials. They are of the view that the cost of construction materials would go up at least by 25 per cent by the time a tender for a project is finalised. It was in December last that the rates were revised and the price of construction materials has gone up manifold since then, he said.

While admitting that there was a delay on the part of the Corporation engineers in preparing the revised estimate of the projects in the wake of the revision of the Government rate for works and construction materials, Kochi Mayor Mercy Williams said that directions were issued to the officials to expedite the process.

The administrative process involved in tendering the works will have to repeated, which again may take some more time, considering the revision in the rate. With the clearing of the projects in the People’s Plan process within a few weeks, the road works would gather momentum, she said.

Though the Kochi Mayor had convened a meeting of senior police officials in the city to discuss the issues related to traffic curbs for enabling the road repair works last week, no senior officials turned up. A circle inspector was delegated for attending the meeting. As no senior officials came for the meeting, the meeting had to be called off, Ms. Williams said.

Traffic needs to be diverted in a phased manner to enable the contractors to complete the road maintenance, as all the road repair works cannot be done during night hours when there would be reduced flow of vehicles, Ms. Williams said.

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