Bad roads leave commuters a harried lot

Tribune News Service

Jammu, May 3

The dilapidated city roads are making driving a nightmare for the people. Not only the drivers are at risk of meeting an accident but their vehicles also take a good beating on the battered roads.

The September floods last year had damaged many of the city roads and the rest of them were dented by heavy rain in March this year. The bumpy roads have not only become a death trap for commuters but also putting a lot of financial burden on them by damaging the suspension of their vehicles.

According to garage owners, there has been an increase in number of vehicles coming to them for maintenance. While some customers have complained that their vehicles got damaged while driving on bumpy roads, others claimed that their vehicles met with an accident due to bad condition of roads.

“A number of customers have complained about suspension problem in their vehicle due to the damaged roads in the city,” said Ganesh Kumar, a manager in an automobile agency in Jammu.

“Most of the vehicles had to change their shockers, which cost around Rs 4,000 to 6,000 per pair,” he added.

Some commuters also claimed that apart from spending more on maintenance, they had developed backache problems too.

Gaurav Mahajan, a marketing manager, said, “Almost all the city roads are full of potholes. We don’t have any alternate route to save out time. Wear and tear charges are burdening our pockets.”

“I had to change both the shockers of my car within two years after buying it. When we are paying road taxes, why should we bear these kinds of expenses?” he asked.

The Department of Roads and Buildings (R&B), Jammu, said they do not have funds to re-lay the roads.

“The network of roads have increased manifold and we don’t have enough financial support to re-lay all roads. Thus, we have to go for patch work only,” said Sheikh Hameed, Chief Engineer, R&B, Jammu.

He said the recent rains led to the damage of the roads in the city. “But we are in a process to address this issue by doing patch work in areas where the roads are damaged,” Sheikh Hameed added.