VIJAYAWADA: Recent spell of rain-damaged several major and arterial roads across the city, baring the skeleton of poor management by the municipal corporation. Crater-like potholes and eroded asphalt became a common sight, pointing to the negligence on part of the engineering department officials of Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC).
As per sources, over 350 km roads out of the total 1,360 km in the city were damaged and 6,000 potholes surfaced on city roads this monsoon. Every year, the corporation spends around `10 crore for the maintenance of existing roads and for laying new ones. With demands to improve the condition of the city roads mounting, the VMC invited tenders worth `1 crore for carpeting the damaged roads with Bitumen Cold Polymer Technology but could not materialise the works due to untimely rains.
When TNIE conducted an inspection to take stock of the damaged roads, it found that several arterial roads in Suryaraopet, Satyanarayanapuram, Besant Road, Gunadala, Auto Nagar, Patamata, Ajith Singh Nagar and Bhavanipuram were waterlogged with hidden potholes, making it hard for the motorists to commute. Taking a serious note of the matter, Left parties staged a demonstration demanding that the VMC repair the damaged roads immediately.
“It has become a routine affair for the civic body to spend crores of rupees in the name of recarpeting damaged roads without concentrating on the quality. If the roads were laid as per Indian Road Congress (IRC) norms, they would have been able to withstand heavy rain,” MV Anjaneyulu, Taxpayers’ Association secretary said. He further suggested the VMC to focus on desilting the clogged drains at regular intervals to prevent water stagnation and avoid city roads getting damaged repeatedly.
“With a major portion of the city roads riddled with potholes, the VMC has opted for Bitumen Cold Polymer Technology to put an end to the ordeal faced by the motorists. Accordingly, engineering department officials have started repairing the roads across the city,” J V Ramakrishna, VMC Superintendent Engineer (Projects) told TNIE.
As per the IRC guidelines 4.1.1 and 4.1.2, the base portion of the road about to receive new layers, should be cleaned off dust and dirt. Following these guidelines, officials had taken up the repair works. But the plans could not be materialised due to untimely rains.