Delhi govt will repair 600 km of road this year: PWD Minister Parvesh Verma

New Delhi, Apr 9 (PTI) The Delhi government plans to repair 600 kilometres of roads in the city this year, with 250 kilometres to be fixed before the monsoon, said PWD minister Parvesh Verma on Wednesday.

He also said the roads maintained by the Public Works Department (PWD) have been identified and works are underway on 250 km of such stretches across the national capital under the first phase.

"After the monsoon, we plan to carry out the second phase of road repair. Under this another 250-300 km of roads, for which we have started the process of identification and budget allocation, will be repaired," Verma said.

The minister further explained that operation and maintenance contracts for these road repair works will be a minimum of two years. "In case a road is damaged in that period, then it will be the responsibility of the contractor to fix it with no additional cost to PWD." "On an average, 200-240 km of road stretches are repaired each year. We plan to increase that and have fixed a target of 600 km of PWD roads," Verma said.

The repair work would include road recarpeting, patchwork, pothole repair and restoration of roads cut by other agencies. The road repair work is carried out by the PWD from mid-March to mid-June and then it stops because of the monsoon.

"Tenders are being called for the roads that have already been identified and in some areas such as the Noida Link road, the Ring Road stretch near Bhairon Marg, and Outer Ring Road the work on the ground has started. We are also filling the potholes," a senior PWD official said.  In Delhi, PWD maintains 1400 km of road length, which are 60 feet in width. These were transferred to the department from the MCD in 2012, which is the original owner of these roads. Residents have often complained about the poor quality of roads ridden with potholes. PTI SSM SSM NSD NSD

Source: PTI