PWD apathy hits city roads

Kochi: Despite tall claims by various agencies, many roads in the city remain in a pathetic condition. Although Public Works Department, Greater Cochin Development Authority, City Corporation, National Highway Authority of India and Kochi Metro Rail Limited have agreed to take up road repair works on a war footing, only few roads along the Metro corridor have been repaired. Several arterial roads and junctions, including the busy Vyttila junction,  still remain in a dilapidated condition.
Resurfacing of the potholed Vyttila-Pettah stretch has been delayed due to poor response to PWD's tenders. "Tenders were invited for  concretizing  the roads  in Vyttila and Pettah, but with no  response  we've to retender the work. Generally, response to tenders is poor because of  delay in disbursing payment to contractors  due to the financial crunch," said Jotty P. Thomas, PWD executive engineer.
Emergency patch work was carried out at Vyttila, but the shoddy repair work failed to last   long and the road  is back to its pathetic condition. It takes hours to cross the potholed busy junction.
A PWD official said that emergency pothole filling work will start on Sunday. "Repair work cannot be carried out during daytime due to heavy traffic while rains obstruct work at night. Major  potholes will be filled and the road will be made motorable by Sunday," he said.
Meanwhile, the committee of the city corporation is in the process of finalising tenders for road repairs. "Once tenders are finalised, road repair work using  plan funds will begin in the first week of  December.  Most roads will be resurfaced using  bitumen macadam and bitumen concrete while Broadway will be laid with concrete tiles at a cost of Rs 75 lakh," said Soumini Jain,  chairperson of the committee.