HC sets up committee to monitor quality of road works

Committee to monitor quality of road works
Deccan Herald

The panel can do a random sampling wherever the works are going on and conduct spot inspections.

The High Court on Monday said it would constitute a three-member committee headed by Capt S Rajarao, former secretary, PWD, to supervise and monitor the on-going road works taken up by Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) in different parts of the City.

Delivering the judgement on a public interest litigation filed by K N Subba Reddy, former MLA, the High Court on Monday observed that, “it’s common knowledge that roads in Bangalore are in a bad shape despite repair and relaying.”

The division bench comprising Chief Justice L K Sodhi and Justice N Kumar said committee, headed by Captain Rajarao, will have former PWD chief engineer B L Balakrishna and former Chief engineer PWD (National Highways) Jayaprakash as members. It will supervise the on-going road works by the BMP, oversee whether the works are as per the norms and whether quality of the roads and the materials used are of high standard, the High Court held.

Random sampling

The Court also observed that the panel would do a random sampling wherever the works are going on as many times as they feel it necessary and conduct spot inspections to ensure that equipment used by the contractor do not have any shortcomings.

The committee will work for 10 months and submit a report every alternate month to the High Court with the first report to be submitted on November 15.

The High Court also directed that the BMP should provide all the facilities including transport, office staff and a honourarium of Rs 15,000 to each of the members of the committee. The PIL was adjourned further to November 15.