On potholed roads, Delhi trips & tumbles

NEW DELHI: Capital's roads are crumbling due to heat and rain. But PWD has no immediate solutions as repairs in patches are clearly not helping.
In the past few months, Delhi's roads have literally crumbled before our eyes. Large potholes have appeared at various points and undulated stretches have become the norm. PWD has been carrying out repairs in patches, but with the AAP government desirous of taking up repair and maintenance of roads on a public-private partnership basis in the long run, the road-owning agency has so far made no plans to take care of the roads post monsoon.
Last week, CM Arvind Kejriwal said there are no potholes on PWD roads after directions were given to fix them before monsoon. The statement is far from reality.Citing shortage of funds, the government had told PWD that it could not finance the agency for large-scale road repairs and had asked it for a priority list.
“Even that list has been put aside now as the maintenance and repair of roads will be handed over to private agencies. They will be given specific stretches and advertising rights over them. But since Delhi has an ad policy, it remains to be seen how this proposal will be worked out. But the government has made it clear that there are no funds for this work,“ said a source.
Just before the start of the monsoon, PWD minister Satyendar Jain had acknowledged that the state of roads was terrible and had ordered repairs of potholes. However, they appeared again after heavy showers.“Repair of potholes is only a temporary measure. The best way to ensure that the roads last is to maintain them through strengthening etc. The Metro work has also disturbed many main roads, not just creating potholes but also leading to undulations. It is impossible to undertake any work till DMRC gives the roads back to us,“ said an official.
Sources said that the government spent a huge amount of money in relaying several roads during the 2010 Commonwealth Games.All those and many others are now up for strengthening. However, said one official, it is impossible to spend so much money on the roads again so the work will have to be staggered.
Meanwhile, it is also certain that the mastic roads, supposedly very expensive, that had appeared in the city around the Commonwealth Games are set to go. Because of the high temperature at which the mastic roads are laid, bitumen was prepared along the roads. However, after National Green Tribunal banned in situ prepara tion of bitumen to prevent air pollution, PWD has decided to change the material to stone matrix asphalt, a cheaper and less polluting alternative. The agency is also replacing the bitumen in use at present with a better grade which can withstand high temperatures.This summer, especially where maximum tempera tures were consistently over 42 degrees Celsius and touched a high of 45 degrees, there were reports of several roads melting.
The mastic roads, laid in a very different way compared to normal roads, are found at junctions, base of flyovers and at any other location where vehicles have to apply brakes more frequently and hence there is a lot of wear and tear.However, since the road surface is smooth, small stones are placed on the material to create friction.These roads, costing about Rs 1,500 per sqm, were also supposed to last longer than normal roads. However, large chunks of the road at various stretches have gone missing. A case in point is a flyover near east Delhi's Mother Dairy which is completely pockmarked.