Rs 9 crore, 10 months and 900 potholes

Rs 9 crore, 10 months and 900 potholes
Vijay Times

A year ago when construction of the road was taken up under the first publicprivate-partnership (PPP) between the government and Mantri Developers, residents on either sides of the road heaved a sigh of relief and waited patiently for their protest and demonstration to bear fruits.

But, exactly 10 months and a monsoon later , things are back to where they were. U nder the PPP , the Rs 9 crore project was to be split between Mantri and the PWD . Of the total cost, Mantri Developers (which has five residential apartment projects on the same road) agreed to pay Rs 5 crore towards the construction of pavement, median and street lighting on the four kilometre stretch from the JD Mara Junction (Ring Road turn) up to the Meenakshi T emple.

The public partner , PWD , was responsible for providing drainage and the three layer of asphalting to make it a highway quality road.

It may be noted that to construct a quality highway , the funds required are Rs 1 crore per kilometre and even going by that standards, the Rs 9 crore fund for a stretch of four kilometres was sufficient when the work commenced in December last year .

The project, with three layers of tarring finished, drainage work completed and street lighting done was supposed to complete prior to monsoons this year , but only one layer of tarring ended this June. The incessant rain washed away the single layer asphalting resulting in fresh potholes and old woes. The drainage work is still not done and there are no signs of streetlights and pavements either . The partnership, gone sour , it seems is because of the blame game .

While PWD is insisting that Mantri Developers finish the pavement and street lighting first, then question about drainage and tarring of road, Mantri Developers maintain that there is no point doing the pavement until the drainage work is finished.

In an e-mail sent to Flextronic vice-president R K Misra, member high powered committee, Major Srikumar of Mantri Developers conveyed that the gravel had come out from the just completed road with potholes, and the divider work is stil not completed, footpath stones out due to heavy rains apart from gutter not connected to road for the rain water to go.

Misra wrote a report saying that the construction quality of the road was not up to the mark and needs to be redone.

Residents from the area have been promised by the authorities that construction work will start once the monsoon subsides.