Thiruvananthapuram roads in dire condition

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: While the backlog of road works of the Corporation from past years has not even reached the tendering stage, the byroads across the city are in a severely dilapidated state. Many of them are unlikely to be repaired this year. Roads in wards such as Kudappanakkunnu, Pangodu, Thirumala, Kanjirampara, Ulloor, Sreekariyam, Karikkakom, Kamaleswaram and Kannamoola are in a dilapidated condition. Going by the trend, the tendering process for even urgent patch works would not begin until February next year, say sources.

“We are close to starting some works on roads around Vettucaud ward due to an upcoming festival in a shrine there. Directions have been given to all zonal offices to identify and tender spilled over works from 2015 and complete them before March 2017,” said Works Standing Committee Chairperson Shafeera Begum. Just before the local body elections in November 2015, some emergency patch works were done instead of complete road repairs in both Corporation as well as PWD roads. Most of these roads were back to being dilapidated before the May assembly election.

Some newly elected councillors lament that their predecessors had not listed any major work in the Corporation during the previous financial year. So the new councillors had to send a new proposal only after the roads get completely decimated. For instance Kamaleswaram councillor V Giri says his predecessor had not listed the most important road work in his ward and he is doubtful whether it would be completed until 2017.

“We have the Aryankuzhy roads which are full of gutters. The last councillor Resmi MB had not listed this work. So we have to face the public's wrath,” said Mr Giri. Even if tendering of spilled over works are completed, it can take at least a year for actual work to commence. The normal practice is to conduct the work in a hurry just before the deadline ends. Some long pending works are being done under the MLA funds.“In Thycaud ward for instance, we are repairing the Kuthiralayam road at Kannettumukku using the MLA funds of VS Sivakumar. A massive drain is being reinforced and we are putting slabs before tarring the road,” said Thycaud councillor Vidya Mohan.