Two months after unveiling grand action plan about road maintenance works in the city, the GHMC has been pushed to the predicament of eating its own words on the same.
The action plan, which announced to take up major road repairs in the city at an expenditure of ₹455 crore, has fallen flat and officials are shifting the blame on the State government for not devolving enough funds.
Earlier, during November, GHMC had issued a statement that white topping of roads will be taken up at 103 locations in the city, at the cost of ₹235.6 crore. “The State government has vetoed the proposal. We have been told not to cause public inconvenience by taking up white topping, as it requires clearance of long stretches of road at once,” an official said.
Other than that, the Corporation was also to take up CC roads on 60 stretches, at the expenditure of ₹64 crore, and maintenance of BT roads in 158 stretches at the cost of ₹155 crore.
As per the statement, priority was to be accorded to places where no road exists in colonies, followed by damaged roads, roads with high density traffic, and preventive maintenance, in that order. All these works were to be completed by March, 2018, and the balance works would be taken up after that.
Officials, however, are not so sure now.
With the State government not showing any inclination to release funds, they have no clue as to when the works would be taken up.
GHMC had sought sanction of ₹700 crore from govt. for road maintenance works, with ₹200 crore to be earmarked for CC roads. So far, there has not been any response, sources said.
