After the floods: Repair of rain-battered road infra to cost MC, Chandigarh Administration Rs 80 crore

Heavy rainfall during monsoon caused heavy damages to the road infrastructure in the city. Their repair would cost the Municipal Corporation and the UT Administration nearly Rs 80 crores.

Officials claimed that though no major loss was reported to the buildings or any other infrastructure, heavy rain wreaked havoc on the city roads during the monsoon. Storm water lines were also damaged at many places.

per an estimate, the MC and the UT Administration would have to spend over Rs 80 crores to repair over 400-km length of roads in the city, which were battered during monsoon.

The roads around all roundabouts were badly damaged. Incidents of road cave-in were reported from many places. Major portions of the road from Dadumajra to Maloya and the one separating Sectors 47 and 48 gave way during rains. A portion of the road also caved in on the Sector 14/15 stretch. A deep pit was formed near the Sector 31/47 roundabout. Incessant rain also caused damage to the roads near a park and a Verka booth in Sector 21-C, the V3 road near the Sector 20 gurdwara and Junctions 52 and 51. A boundary wall behind government houses in Sector 22 also collapsed during rain.

Mayor Harpreet Kaur Babla said the major loss was suffered by the Municipal Corporation as it maintained a majority of the internal roads in both urban and rural areas of the UT.

The MC is responsible for maintaining approximately 1,860 kms of roads, approximately 60% of the total road length in the UT. The maintenance of V3, V4, V5 and V6 and the roads in villages are the responsibility of the civic body.

Babla said the MC saved Rs 40 crores as V3 roads were transferred to the UT Administration. She said the tenders worth over Rs 40 crores had been floated for the recarpeting of remaining V4, V5 and V6 roads in the city. The work on these roads would be started soon, she added.

CB Ojha, Chief Engineer, UT Administration, said the Administration would start the recarpeting of roads falling in its jurisdiction after monsoon. Estimates were being prepared for the recarpeting of V3 roads recently transferred to the UT by the MC and tenders would be floated shortly. The length of these roads was around 275 kms, said the UT Chief Engineer.

Ojha said the Administration was maintaining over 100 kms of roads that have fast-moving traffic and connect Chandigarh to other towns. The patchwork on Madhya Marg, Dakshin Marg Jan Marg, Himalaya Marg and Uttar Marg had already begun and the recarpeting of other roads would be started once the rainy season came to an end.