Multiplicity of agencies behind Gurugram road rot

Around 4pm on Sunday, 24 hours after Darmender died after his car allegedly lost control after hitting a pothole on a road in Sector 58, vehicles shuddered as they passed over the same metre-long pothole — it was yet to be repaired.

Many of the city’s roads are pothole-ridden and the multiplicity of agencies who look after the city roads make it easy to pass the buck, said Sarika Panda Bhatt, programme coordinator for Haryana Vision Zero — a government initiative to achieve zero fatality on roads. “There is not a single pothole-free road. There are potholes even on Golf Course Road,” Bhatt said. “Then there are roads like Golf Course Extension Road, which are full of potholes. At least 50 roads in the city are like this,” she added.

The city’s roads are managed by the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG), NHAI (National Highways Authority of India), HSVP (Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran), GMDA (Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority) and the Public Works Department (PWD).

Yashpal Yadav, MCG commissoner, said all roads under the MCG had been fixed 15 days back and there were no pending complaints under the Harpath application. The GIS (Geographic information system) -based Harpath app was developed to receive complaints on broken and potholed roads for repair. Citizens can download the app, upload a picture of a damaged road and lodge a complaint. Every complaint must be resolved within 10 days.

HT had reported in February, how the last deadline set by the MCG commissioner for officials to fix potholes in the city expired on February 10. However, many of the arterial roads continue to be plagued by potholes. The February 10 deadline was the third such set by the commissioner since October 2018.

Speaking about the road on which the accident took place, Amit Rathee, GMDA executive engineer, said, “Maintenance of the road is not with us. It will be transferred to GMDA from HSVP on March 31, after which we will resolve existing issues.”

“NH-8 is fine, but there are potholes in the rest of the roads. The Golf Course Extension Road is especially full of potholes,” said Tejpal Singh, 30, from Rajasthan, who has been working as a driver in the city for the past two years.

Sanjay Sharma, a resident of Sector 23, said main sector roads in Palam Vihar were damaged, and needed immediate attention. “The roads don’t have potholes but one has to find the road in the potholes,” he quipped.

The Sector 58 road on which the accident took place had other potholes and was uneven even in places were repairs have been made. Other roads close to the spot where the accident took place were also in a poor state.

Bhatt said the best way to fix the potholes is by asking a junior engineer (JE) to take it up directly. “The JE concerned should do a survey of the roads under their jurisdiction, and then call a tender to do it. Each JE won’t have more than 40km of roads under them,” she said.

First Published: Mar 25, 2019 02:24 IST