Church Street grinds to a halt

Church Street grinds to a halt
BMP’s Efforts To Asphalt Road During The Day Stalls Traffic
The Times of India

Church Street: On Wednesday morning, peak hour traffic in Church Street was halted when a mammoth Ingersoll Rand came rolling down the road — all because civic authorities decided to asphalt the road.

Post-noon, the situation got so chaotic that traffic police had to intervene and even ask workers if it was possible to continue in the night. “We have been asked to finish today,’’ said workers. By night, however only a stretch of Church Street leading up to St Mark’s Road was done.

The point that irate citizens affected by the ‘work’ made was that it was standard practice to undertake road-related works in the night so as to not inconvenience commuters. Church Street being one of the nerve centres connecting M G Road, St Mark’s Road, Residency Road et al.

But is the BMP aware of this? Repeated attempts to contact commissioner K Jairaj proved futile. Joint commissioner (Works) Harsh Gupta explains, “Because BMP undertook asphalting in the night it was difficult to monitor the quality of the work done. So the high court panel recommended that asphalting be done during the day and that there should be no traffic movement for the next 24 hours.’’

Is the HC panel aware that their words are finally being taken seriously, albeit injudiciously? Says R Jaiprasad, a HC panel member, “Yes we have recommended that asphalting be done in the day. In the night, workers just lay some tar and excuses are made. We still say that there should be a 24-hour gap later.’’

Road not yet ready for asphalt: Church Street, however, is plagued by a larger problem — of dalda-clogged, underground pipes. Explains a BWSSB engineer, “We have not laid new underground lines on this road for decades now. There are over 25 hotels on this road contributing to a lot of pressure on the underground system.” Only after the drainage is ready can a road be laid. But is the BMP listening?