Road Potholes - Latest News Update, Information, Photos & Videos on Road Potholes at Lokmat Times

Harsh Yadav (Lokmat News Service )NagpurConcrete roads made by two contractors of Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) have proven to be very untrustworthy for residents of East Nagpur and Bhankheda Mauja, Timki as they have sunk within a few months of being laid with cracks and potholes appearing across the stretches. The two contractors are M/s. Rudhvi Construction and M/s. MRV Construction. Sources said that they had been awarded tenders for construction of concrete roads in various stretches of the locality. The total cost of the works was not much at only around Rs 2 crore but the execution leaves much to be desired. Lokmat Times visited the area and also spoke to officers of the NIT who disclosed that the contracts were awarded as recently as November 2022. The defect liability period of the roads is two years but NIT is yet to issue a show cause notice and ask them to repair the roads.Residents say that the construction was of very poor quality. Experts that Lokmat Times spoke to said there were a number of things that could have gone wrong. They said that the soil (murrum) may not have been properly compacted and neither the granular sub-base (GSB) laid as per norms. Moreover, the plain cement concrete (PCC) work using M-15 grade of concrete too may not have been carried out appropriately to provide an impermeable bed for final concretization using a higher grade of concrete, generally of M-40 grade.The road concretization works have to be audited by an external agency before the NIT clears the bills for final payments. This work is generally given to the premier Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Nagpur. Sources said that the contractors who are supposed to get works approved by the VNIT at all stages of road construction generally avoid doing so for small works. They request the VNIT to give the final approval after the entire work is finished and the final layer of concrete poured.Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's east Nagpur constituency president Umesh Utkhede who exposed the bad condition of roads alleged that there was a nexus between the contractors and the NIT officials who cleared the final bills. "The deteriorating condition of the roads proves this. How is it possible that concrete roads here would sink and develop potholes so soon after construction when similar roads constructed elsewhere in the city did not do so?" he questioned. Utkhede claimed to have documents to show that NIT officials were taking personal favours from contractors in land deals and favouring them. The MNS has submitted a memorandum to NIT urging it to address the issue. Utkhede also said that the MNS had also contacted VNIT officials but the latter said that the NIT was duty bound to give them a copy of the work order and details of the contract but "they never bother to inform" them. If they reach out to VNIT after two to three months, it is too late for any action to be taken, he claimed. Meanwhile, the people bear the brunt as the government agency has spent the money allocated for the road works which have been shown as completed to their satisfaction on their records. The bumpy rides continue.

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Road potholes, Latest News

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