‘Ek Aur Ek Gyarah’ volunteers to repair Shimla’s potholed roads

SHIMLA: A Hong Kong-based businessman from Shimla has formed a group, ‘Ek Aur Ek Gyarah’ to repair the potholed roads in the capital city with the help of volunteers to make the city roads risk-free for commuters and pedestrians.

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, January 31

A Hong Kong-based businessman from Shimla has formed a group, ‘Ek Aur Ek Gyarah’ to repair the potholed roads in the capital city with the help of volunteers to make the city roads risk-free for commuters and pedestrians.

The group has adopted the 2-km long Baluganj-Summer Hill road and has repaired it by filling the potholes.

Viveik Saigal, the man behind the ‘Ek Aur Ek Gyarah’ mission said, “When I came here from Hong Kong, I saw the potholed roads causing inconvenience to commuters and thought to do my bit to improve the roads.”

Saigal, then got in touch with the country’s Indian Road Congress (IRC) member Prof Prithivi Kandal, a renowned road engineer, who has worked in the US designing the roads and bridges, before coming here in Jaipur, his home city a few years ago.

“Prof Kandal told me that he can take the initiative and can use the bitumen emulsion which works in winter and repair the potholes as they have done in Jaipur,” he said.

Prof Kandal deputed Bhawani Chauhan, a trainer from Jaipur, to train the volunteers of the ‘Ek Aur Ek Gyarah’ to do the patch work.

“We first procured bags of special bitumen emulsion mixture made by the French company that costs Rs 11 per kg. Chauhan trained us how to mix the bitumen mixture with the concrete and use it to repair the potholes,” said Saigal, who volunteers to work in first-aid emergency situation, disaster management and climate change.

Today all volunteers of the group, which also includes retired teachers, students and policemen, including women, have not only repaired the potholed Baluganj-Summer Hill road, but have also developed the 200 sq metre barren land in the locality into a children’s park.

“Every volunteer contributes about three hours twice a week for the repair work,” said Saigal.

The group has grown into a full-fledged community project and the Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) has also pitched into support the cause.

“The SMC labourers prepare a road patch for the repair work. The volunteers then fill the potholes with the special mixture. We add grass or leaves on the filled patch that settles quickly,” said the volunteers.

Saigal said they were ready to train volunteers in other parts of the city.