Rains rip open shoddy road works by MSEDCL contractor

Nagpur: A day after a biker died due to uneven road near Rahate Colony T-point, another similar spot was located at a patch connecting busy inner ring road near Chhatrapati Nagar. Here, Policab, a private firm engaged by MSEDCL, laid underground cable some fortnight ago and left the road uneven. The first spell of monsoon has washed away the restoration patch of the road and it has developed at least two feet deep potholes.
While huge craters on thoroughfares causing traffic chaos are a problem, the shoddy restoration work is worsening the situation by the day. Following calls from motorists, TOI visited the spot on Wednesday and found all the stretches where the MSEDCL contractor carried out restoration work after laying power cable are now in a pathetic shape due to poor restoration.
TOI found that most of the restored roads have turned uneven posing threat to motorists especially two-wheeler riders.
“It appears the substandard work has given away following the first few spell of rain. Perhaps, the roads might not have been this bad had the NMC’s hotmix department monitored the repair works,” said J Manoj, a resident. The area comes under the prabhag of mayor Sandip Joshi.
Residents of the locality pointed out that the patchwork near Chhatrapati Nagar Ring Road was not carried out properly. “The road is sinking almost everywhere on this patch. There is every chance of loaded trucks overturning,” pointed out Rahul Jadhav, who uses the road daily, and claimed that a motorcycle rider sustained minor injuries after his bike fell because of the uneven surface on Tuesday evening.
TOI also brought the shoddy works into the notice of MSEDCL’s office in Congress Nagar division. Deputy engineer (infrastructure) A Shende assured to look into the matter and stated that Policab had carried out the cable laying work in this part of the city. “We will get the patch restore from the firm at the earliest,” he said.
Earlier, the firm’s representative Gaurav Pande denied any shoddy work by his company but later, assured that it will be repaired soon.
TOI has been regularly highlighting the poor road patchwork across the city. Roads are dug up for laying of various utility lines such as electricity cables, water or sewerage pipelines, but not restored properly.