Road recarpeting starts today

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 3

In what will bring a respite to commuters, the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation will start the recarpeting of various roads in the city from tomorrow.

The work was stopped in the winter season as it is a non-conducive weather for recarpeting. With appropriate weather setting in, the MC will restart the job and works worth Rs46 crore will be carried out in the coming months.

According to the information, Rs35-crore recarpeting is the pending for 2020-21 while Rs13-crore work is pending for 2019-20. Due to a shortage of funds and apparent mismanagement, the works had been delayed. These jobs are already allotted to different contractors. The civic body will now float a tender for the new road recarpeting works worth Rs78 crore.

Pending works

• According to sources, Rs35-crore recarpeting work is pending for 2020-21 while Rs13-crore work is pending for 2019-20. The work was reportedly delayed due to a shortage of funds faced by the Municipal Corporation.
• The civic body will now float a tender for new road recarpeting works worth Rs78 crore.

MC officials said work regarding recarpeting roads would be a priority as it was not completed due to weather conditions.

Shailender Singh, MC’s Chief Engineer, told the Chandigarh Tribune: “The road recarpeting will start tomorrow. We will start it from scratched roads in Sector 9. The machines have already started coming.”

The MC has been facing flak for the past few years for the potholed and broken roads. Earlier, it kept blaming the shortage of funds. It was after a long time that the UT Administration woke up from its slumber and released dedicated funds for recarpeting.

“It only shows poor coordination between the two. We have not seen such a pathetic condition of roads of this well-planned city. The MC must prioritise road works as it irks the residents the most,” said Baljinder Singh Bittu, Chairman, FOSWAC.

In a random check it was seen that the roads dividing Sector 53 and 54 and Sector 51 and 52 were broken. In some other parts of city also, the roads are crying for attention, but MC vehicles were seen managing with patchwork only.