The Supreme Court (SC)-appointed Committee on Road Safety, headed by S Sunder, has directed Delhi Government’s Public Works Department (PWD) to audit all potholes in the national Capital and verify whether they have been rectified.
The PWD officials had earlier claimed that 3,945 potholes were identified during a special drive and they have been rectified. However, taking strong note of lack of a mechanism to monitor the condition of the roads, the Committee has also directed the State Government to authorise Transport Department to monitor the condition of the roads belonging to all road owning agencies in Delhi.
Meanwhile, the Finance Department of the Delhi Government has sought details of works, including those of flyovers and roads, awarded by the Public Works Department (PWD) in the last three years.
At a high-level meeting that was held last week, the SC-appointed Committee expressed concerns on the fatalities occurring saying the potholes are not just a threat to the lives of commuters but also cause for road congestions.
According to the minutes of the meeting, the PWD had conducted a special drive for 15 days and identified 3,945 potholes across the city. The PWD officials claimed in the meeting that all potholes have been rectified.
The officials added that at times potholes occur when roads are cut for utilities, laying of pipes etc.
PWD officials also informed the Committee members that they have a website for lodging complaints by the public throughout the year.
Contrary to the PWD claims, there were a large number of stretches left out where potholes needed to be repaired. For instance road connecting ISBT Kashmiri Gate flyover to Shastri Park intersection had developed several potholes. Similarly, road connecting Old Railway Iron Bridge via Marginal Pusta Road to Khajuri Chowk has a numbers of potholes. Even there are number of potholes on Old Iron Bridge on river Yamuna, Subhash Road connecting Red Fort to GPO on Netaji Subhash Marg, Mehrauli-Badarpur road, between Babarpur to Seelampur, Kashmeri Gate to ISBT, Bara Hindu Rao etc too have several potholes. Broken footpaths, dislocated kerb stones, missing signage, uncontrolled growth of trees affecting traffic movements, potholes and missing grills are some of the common problems spotted on the Capital's road.
A survey by the School of Planning and Architecture pointed out that overloaded trucks entering Delhi caused maximum damage to the city roads. Potholes on roads are emerging as one of the biggest killers. With almost 30 deaths every day, potholes and speed breakers have claimed over 15,000 deaths for the last three consecutive years. As per data of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, while no death occurred in Delhi due to potholes in 2016, there were 6,424 road accidents due to potholes killing 2,324 people across India in 2016.
However, in Delhi, the death of a 61-year-old man in Civil Lines of North Delhi in October 2017 has once again thrown the spotlight on the poor condition of roads in the Capital and the indifference of the PWD. This senior citizen died when his two-wheeler met with an accident, allegedly after hitting a pothole. In August, a school teacher was run over by a bus when she lost her balance and fell off her scooter after hitting a waterlogged pothole. A 35-year-old motorcycle-borne man met a similar fate in 2016 in Vasant Kunj. The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill has provision for penalty of Rs 1 lakh for road-owning agencies if their fault is found to be the reason for an accident.
Meanwhile, a Government official said that a format has been issued to the PWD to get the details, which seeks information on the name of work, sanctioned cost, justified cost, bid amount, percentage above and below, and remarks.
“The department has asked the PWD's principal secretary and engineer-in-chief to provide the details, including those of roads, buildings and flyovers, at the earliest,” the official said.
He further said “Number of accepted and rejected proposals has been sought by the finance department. The PWD has also been asked to submit details about proposals which were sanctioned by various agencies during the last three years.”
According to the department, the details of number of proposals which have been put for tender have also been sought from the PWD.