City has around 144km of kuccha roads, civic body survey shows

Nagpur: The city, which once took pride in having the most motorist-friendly, bump-free roads, is now dotted with potholes, ripped off patches and slush pits that emerge every monsoon.
As per a Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) survey, the city, spread over 227.29 sqkm, has 1,491.19km of tar roads, while 666.78km have been converted into cement ones. The city has around 144km of kuccha roads and these are a cause for concern for motorists.
The roads fall under the domain of different agencies like the NMC, Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT), NHAI and the state’s public works department (PWD). The national highways constitute just 1.35% of the total road network, state highways and PWD roads have a length of 91.13km while NMC and NIT are responsible for 2,080.26km roads.
Different agencies have affected infrastructure development in the city’s peripheral areas. This also means that the onus of having good roads largely rests on the NMC and NIT.
BJP corporator from east Nagpur Rajkumar Sahu said that many areas in this part of the city are struggling to get motorable roads.
Sahu has submitted proposals for construction of water bound macadam (WBM) or kuccha roads in many areas under his prabhag. He said getting an WBM road offers some relief to people residing in areas like Laxmi Nagar, Sahakar Layout, Vijay Nagar, Radha Krishna Housing Society, Bharatwada etc.
Congress corporator Darshni Dhawad too pointed out that many taxpayers are being forced to use kuccha roads in her prabhag comprising areas under Dabha due to “favouritism” towards places represented by ruling party corporators. “There are many roads in the city which are tarred twice a year. But in areas like Dabha, we struggle to get the funds sanctioned for WBM roads,” a miffed Dhawad said.
The elected representatives also pointed out that areas in Hudkeshwar and Narsala, which were included in the city limits, were lucky, thanks to former guardian minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule. Many kuccha roads in these two areas were not only converted into tar roads, but many were concretized and more were in the pipeline.
It shows that the areas in the outer parts of the city, which have no influential elected representatives, suffer for a longer period of time due to lack of civic amenities, especially road infrastructure.
“These roads are mostly in underdeveloped areas with a fewer number of houses and are generally located on the outskirts of the city,” said a senior official from the NMC’s public works department.