Roads in a shambles

Thiruvananthapuram: Prolonged monsoon showers, delay in tendering road works and pipe-laying work by Kerala Water Authority (KWA) has turned city roads into death traps. Huge potholes are surfacing every day making the life hell for motorists and pedestrians alike.

The election code-of-conduct imposed at Vattiyoorkavu constituency has come us a huge blow to the residents with the Public Works Department (PWD) stalling the tendering procedure putting on hold works on around 154 roads.

“We were supposed to open the tender today (on Wednesday). Beca-use of the election code of conduct, we have postponed the opening to next month. `1 crore worth road works have been planned in the Vattiyoorkavu constituency alone,” said an official of PWD City Roads.  

The official said that they are all set to take up the repairing and relaying works as soon as the rain stops. `60 lakh and `50 lakh worth works would be taken up in the Thiruvananthapuram and Nemom Constitue-ncies respectively.

“We are waiting for sunshine. We can do tarring only on dry roads and unfortunately rain continues to lash the state capital. Our aim is to make all the roads motorable within a month,” said the official.  However, the rift between KWA and PWD continues to be a problem.

“We have given a letter to the KWA to finish off the work very soon. We are unable to do some of the projects because of the pipe-laying work. They should lay crossing pipe in advance on roads so that they can give connections without digging open the road every time,” said the PWD official.

An official of KWA said that pipeline bur-sts are inevitable and the work of the KWA often goes unappreciated.

“Water is the most essential need of any human being and we are not given enough priority often. The estimates by PWD for road restoration are exorbitant and there is a delay in getting sanction for road cutting,” said an official of KWA.