Govind Sharma
The half of the monsoon season is gone by and almost half of it has still to pass by but when we see the condition of our roads, it appears pathetic as ever before. Most of the roads in the Jammu city and its outskirts were given a face lift only a couple of months ago after the ERA completed the work of laying of sewerage pipes Now potholes have started appearing once again there with the advent of the monsoon season and most of roads have changed into berms and become traffic unworthy and it seems that these roads were never repaired.
Most of the roads have been damaged though half of the monsoon season is yet to show its presence in the times to come if the reports about above normal monsoon are to be believed. Potholes have appeared on roads just with two or three torrential rains. Even the bridges on river Tawi are in deplorable condition, where berms are posing grave threat of damaging alignments of the vehicles.
In the city and its outskirts, most of the roads have been either washed away or a thick layer of silt has accumulated on them thereby creating hindrance in the smooth flow of traffic. In rural areas, the seasonal nallahas have played havoc on the local populace. Whenever it rains excessively, the flooded nallahs bring normal life to a grinding halt, as on most of the seasonal nallahs, there are no bridges and water flows on the road, which disrupts vehicular movement and cuts link with other parts during torrential rains. The students, employees, patients and all are the sufferers without any fault of theirs. Recently we witnessed many cases in the State wherein the patients could not reach the hospitals in time due to bad road links and passed away resultantly.
During rains, the roads in cities and towns look like small streams. Drains are uncovered and overflowing, as they are not been cleaned for months together. Neither the people nor the Municipality realize the importance of cleanliness. There appear pools of water all along the roads. Roads are littered with garbage and filth. In rural areas, the condition of roads is worst, particularly where there are no drains and the waste water of the households and even the rain water flows over the road. Moreover, the underground water pipes laid on the roadsides always remain leaking and water oozing from them flows over the roads and destroys its surface completely.
Every year a large amount is spent to lay new roads and repair the old ones, but it is irony that most of these roads even fail to face three or four downpours during monsoon season and get destroyed.
This compels us to think as to what is the reason that after every monsoon, we have to spend a lot of money on maintenance of the roads. Where is the fault and who is responsible for it? Are roads constructed without prior proper planning and if the planning is done… do the concerned contractors and engineers follow the norms and guidelines set for the construction of roads. Are they adhering to these norms…. Is the material used in the construction of roads of quality or is of sub standard. The doubts are expected to arise in the minds of the public but nobody is ready to take responsibility and everybody shifts responsibility on the other. To fix the accountability, there needs a long debate among all stakeholders—PWD R&B officials, contractors, and the general public.
However, most of us attribute the deplorable condition of roads to lack of coordination between different departments – PWD, Municipal Council, PHE department, PDD and BSNL.
The PHE department, BSNL and PDD, whenever want, dig the roads for repairing the underground pipes, laying telephone wires and erection of electric poles, that too in a haphazard manner and without any coordination with the PWD department. The haphazard digging not only damages the roads but also poses a danger to the commuters.
While taking to a cross section of people on the bad condition of roads, President, Chamber of Commerce and Industries, YV Sharma, opined that we Indians have started compromising on everything. Notwithstanding the dangerous consequences of compromising on raw material used in the construction and repair of roads, the contractors in connivance with officials of concerned department are using sub-standard material in the construction of roads. He said, “It is not important how quickly the roads are constructed, important is whether the roads made are durable or not. He attributed the deplorable condition of the roads to the nexus between officials of PWD, R&B, and contractors, who do not use the Governments funds judiciously and instead find ways to swallow the funds. Taking a dig on the PWD department and the road contractors, who blame the rains responsible for the deplorable condition of the roads, he said that the concerned department should erect sign boards along the roads having written “These roads are not for the rainy season’’. It is wastage of money if your roads even fail to withstand a monsoon season, he added.
Baldev Khullar, president, Raghunath Bazaar Businessmen Association, attributed the pathetic condition of the roads to encroachments of nallahs and drains, besides their choking due to the negligence of the municipal authorities. He said, no doubt the rainfall this season has crossed the figures of total rainfall which occurred in previous year in the whole season, but the authorities concerned could not escape from taking the responsibility of worst condition of the roads. He said in the city and its outskirts, most of the nallahs and even drains have been illegally encroached by the people and in rainy season during excessive rains, due to overflow of these narrow nallahs, the water flows over the road, enters in the dwellings and shops of the people and damage everything. He also held responsible the lack of coordination among various Government departments like PHE, PWD, BSNL and PDD for the damage of the roads. “One year, the one department digs the roads and the other year another, due to which the roads are almost damaged every year and then again repaired. So there is defect in our system”, he added.
President, Jammu-Kathua Bus Union, Kuldeep Kumar, said that the while setting the platform for the road, the earth is not allowed to settle properly and the roads are blacktopped in the haste but in monsoon season due to incessant rains, the roads at certain places sink, which give way to water logging. This causes formation of potholes. Moreover, the roads are not leveled properly while constructing the new ones or repairing the old ones, which also causes water logging, he said, adding, “We bus owners are the most sufferers, as bad roads shorten the lives of our vehicles and also give rise to accidents”.
Expressing his views on the burning topic, Co-chairman, Federation of Industries, Anil Suri, said, “I personally feel that poor planning is one of the main reasons behind this mess. Our agencies are not implementing the policies and plans effectively. Moreover the long term focus is missing in their approach due to which our roads cannot last even a season. Second big reason is the illegal encroachments and mining in the nallahs. The authorities concerned must take some strong steps to stop this menace of encroachment and mining. There are also defects in our process of implementation, as we never take preventive steps for the maintenance of roads instead provide breakdown maintenance. Our agencies wait for the roads to get damaged utterly and then take up the repair work. They need to change their way of thinking but it is also true that everything is not in their hand, as they do not have sufficient funds to pay the contractors and how long the contractors will spend from their own accounts”.
We maintain roads only before or after the monsoon season and that too after public pressure and protests, he lamented and suggested that there should be annual maintenance plan for the roads.
When the engineers and other higher ups in CPWD department were contacted, they completely ruled out any laxity on their part. They said, “There are proper norms laid down by the department for construction of roads. There is a defect liability period set for the contractors and if prior to that any damage is caused to the roads, the contractors are responsible to repair the roads and they do. There is no connivance among the engineers and contractors. All are doing their work honestly”.
They further said that there is 5% permissible limit set for the defect of the roads and till the defect liability period is over, the contractors are liable to repair the roads and once the liability period is over, the department is responsible for undertaking repair work.
In response to a question they said that our drainage system particularly in Jammu city was years old and defective due to which the problem of water logging used to arise and deteriorated the condition of the roads, but new drainage system, on which the work is still going on in some areas by the ERA, the problem of water logging will get solved. Due to this project, most of the roads got damaged, but that was important for future. We should keep a wide outlook. We should not think only of our present but also about the future. No doubt, the common public has to suffer a lot due to this project but after the project completes, our sewerage system will improve.
Before the advent of the monsoon season, we restored most of the city roads which had damaged due to laying of sewerage pipes by the ERA, they said there is no doubt that those roads were restored in haste, but that was must at that time as the monsoon season was about to start and if roads were not repaired, the situation would have worsen. Moreover, once the monsoon season ends, all the roads would be restored and potholes filled without any delay but till the monsoon is active in the State repair work cannot be carried out, they added.
Satpal Manhas, Superintending Engineer, PWD, when contacted, cited the increasing traffic and overloading responsible for the damage of the roads. He said, “The traffic in Jammu has increased manifold in the past 10 years. The overloaded vehicles are a cause of concern for the roads as when they pass over the roads they cause a momentary, very small but significant deformation of the road pavement structures and the cracks start developing on the roads, which later take the shape of potholes. However, this is not the only reason of deterioration of roads. Our years-old poor drainage system is also a major factor responsible for this. As, our defunct drainage system is incompetent to manage the drainage water of the city, which has increased many fold with increase in population, the drains overflow in the monsoon season leading to water logging on roads, which is the main reason of destruction of roads”.
He said that their men had already taken up the work of temporary filling of the potholes, wherever they are in abundance, but permanent annual maintenance of the roads can be done only after the Monsoon ends. On the deteriorated condition of the main Tawi Bridge due to the formation of potholes, he said that these can be covered up only with Cold Emulsion, which cannot be applied during rains, as it requires at least two or three sunny days to set.
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