Pune Zilla Parishad constructs 246-km roads in 13 talukas in 12 hours

Zilla Parisha CEO Ayush Prasad said 246 km of roads were constructed on January 18 in 13 talukas of the district. “The roads were constructed as part of our campaign to complete some development works in 100 days,” he said.

As part of the campaign, Prasad said 17,717 development works were given administrative approval. “Of these, over 13,000 development works were given technical approval. And everyday work orders for 100 development works were issued. As a result, over 3,000 development works have been completed so far,” he said, adding that 95 per cent of roads are “newly constructed.”

On Tuesday, over 682 road stretches were completed. “This work includes the 246 km roads across the district. This is a kind of a record in the history of Pune Zilla Parishad,” he said.

Majority of the roads cover a 2 km stretch.

Prasad said for the 682 road stretches, similar number of contractors were employed. “The entire purpose of the exercise was not to create a record but to create awareness among the villagers about the quality of roads in their village. We want the villagers to take ownership of the roads so that they themselves get better quality roads,” he said.

Prasad said a third party audit from institutions such as COEP was being conducted to ensure quality of the roads. “Our engineers have already collected samples of the material used in constructing the roads. These will be handed over to the agencies for the purpose of conducting the audit. It is an ongoing exercise…. we will come to know about the quality of roads after a few days,” he said.

The roads were inspected by MLAs and MPs and other people’s representatives. Baramati MP Supriya Sule visited at least three talukas to inspect the state of the roads.  Prasad, along with MLA Dilip Mohite-Patil, inspected roads in Khed taluka. “Village sarpanchs, members and even villagers should ensure that they get quality roads from the contractors,” Mohite-Patil said.