Improving Road Maintenance in Country.

[Sanjeev Goyal]

	DWARKA FORUM Dwarka Ki Awaaz                                           (Regn No. S-63070)                                        (A Welfare Association of Residents & RWA's / CGHS Representatives of Dwarka Sub-City)
Regd. Office: 720, Pocket-1, Sector-14, Dwarka, New Delhi - 110078		Phone No. 011-20514195 E-mail: dwark...@gmail.com www.dwarkaforum.org

                                   No. SKG/PMO/027                     05 Jul 2015

श्री नरेंद्र मोदी, प्रधानमंत्री,                                                          

Nirman Bhawan,

New Delhi-110011. pm...@pmo.nic.in

 

Sir,

 

Concerned Department: (i) M/o Urban Development, (ii) M/o Road Transport & Highways.

Reg: Improving Road Maintenance in country.

 

We know that roads are like arteries of a progressive nation. Any blockage or potholes on it can pose serious problem to the nation’s growth. Smooth pothole free roads are not only pre-requisite of any fast growing nation like ours but are also a basic right of citizens. Despite such importance it is strongly believed in public parlance that road construction & maintenance is large area of corruption. The frequent newspaper reports and revelation by CAG is a conformation to this fact.

 

However, it is understood that despite that there is no central agency for effective enforcement of guidelines for verifying construction or maintenance quality. While we as citizens of Delhi (Dwarka area) have recently faced a challenging situation where despite considerable poor quality of newly constructed roads by DDA we are unable to do anything as our repeated letters are going into deaf ears. Likewise our dozens of letters could not move PWD-Delhi despite extremely poor quality of newly opened flyover of Muniraka & Africa Avenue on Outer Ring Road during Commn Wealth Games. But to cover earlier surface these got new carpeting within a span of 3 years at a cost of R.4 crores. Similarly in another case newly laid road supervised by NHAI at NH-8 have potholes & other deficiencies visible but ‘on record’ everything is fine. While in foreign countries roads having life up to 40 years are constructed nothing that sort of happening in India. Despite considerable improvement in road building technology the standard life still here remains 5 years, while the actual pothole free life of a road is much shorter. If this is the situation in national political hot-spot we can easily imagine the position in rest of country.

 

What we understand one of the major reasons for such neglect of our complaints is that while we are saying that road is broken or density is not proper, it is ‘sturdy & new’ in Govt. records. The absence of availability of road inspection report in public domain is being abused & misused by corrupt officials. While the old or new roads suffer with bad patches or potholes nothing that sort is recorded in official records – so in a way everything is ‘all right’ in records and there is no transparency. As all the records are in the custody of public authority there is no immediate access to it by citizen. Evidently road maintenance does not happen and false record is created. As per instruction every PWD road in Delhi must be inspected twice in a day morning & evening, but apparently false records are created for such inspection as these reports are not accessed by public. All possible types of corruption like fake carpeting, double carpeting, poor carpeting, false repair bill everything is happening as frequently reported in newspapers. In addition, there are many problems connected with footpaths & service roads completed ignored.

 

In order to plug these loopholes, we would like to forward following 2 suggestions:

 

(i) Live Inspection Report: With technological advancement such gaps between Govt. records & ‘reality’ can be plugged. Most of the road constructing & maintaining agencies follow CPWD norms for such jobs. What we suggest that CPWD, in the chapter about maintenance of roads, may include norms to display road related information thru web portal. In other words CPWD to include in its maintenance manual guidelines about road inspection, specify report format & frequency about road inspection and make it mandatory to display the information on website of concerned agency. Every agency which constructs or maintains roads/streets must be under obligation to provide road wise inspection report on the website. The information displayed must be in easy format where road-wise information covering full ‘right of way’ ROW’ can be seen/retrieved by public. At least 5 such previous inspection reports of ROW must remain live on the portal before being removed. A suggestive format could be as attached at annexure A. This will plug the gap between Govt. record and bring it into public view thereby help in avoiding falsification of same. The availability of live information on portal can, then, help public to challenge false one & concerned engineer held responsible. This can prove to be a revolutionary step in upgrading the road maintenance activity throughout the country. This will also help curb corruption to some extent.

 

(ii) Quality Inspection Authority: At present road construction quality verification jobs are assigned by different agencies to CRRI, IIT etc. Functioning as quality inspector is not the prime work of these research agencies. It is understood that with rapid growth in road network & tremendous increase in infrastructure related projects, these research agencies are neither been able to handle all projects nor, due to limited manpower, are able to give quality output. These agencies are now rejecting proposals, as per reply under RTI application NHAI has informed that CRRI rejected the proposal of evaluation of bituminous overlay work of Delhi-Gurgaon Express Way. Otherwise also these research agencies are only diverting ‘research’ manpower to these jobs and are only verifying certain selected samples of the new road and are not ensuring quality on full road. Live evident examples are available in Dwarka, where despite considerable bad patches CRRI has not been held responsible because of sample testing. Since roads & other civil structures are significant part of infrastructure building and India is having second largest road network in world, it is recommended that a separate national level specialized body be created to function as ‘Quality Inspector’ for all civil jobs to include roads, streets, dams, tunnels, bridges, buildings etc. The agency may be entrusted with following jobs:

(i)            The agency, by law, should have jurisdiction over quality monitoring of all civil work being carried on by any public body in any part of country.

(ii)           This should be sole agency in India to fix construction related standards. There should be no separate mandate issued by M/o Road Transport & Highways, CPWD, IRC etc. The possible amalgamation/restructuring of Indian Road Congress with this new body be explored for efficient results and to consolidate the work.

(iii)          Entertain poor quality complain on pan India basis.

 

 

Thanks. Please acknowledge.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

 

(S K Goyal)

D-103 Shivam Apts, Plot-14,

Sec-12, Dwarka,

New Dwelhi-110078. cwa...@gmail.com

 

Note: Please do mention reference no. No. SKG/PMO/027 in all correspondence.

 

Copy to:  (i) minist...@gov.in, (ii) nitin....@nic.in, vaibha...@nic.in

 (iii) Times of India

 

 

 

Annexure A

Name of Road:

(with identification marks for start and end of road)

Date of Inspection:

Time: First Half or second half.

Name of Engineer:

Date of last carpeting of road

Date of last construction of footpath:

 

Observations:

a)         Whether any kerb stone/tile is uprooted on central verge or footpath,

b)        Is there any low level footpath allowing vehicle to climb it?

c)       Whether any pothole is visible - if yes where and about what size?

d)      Is any patch on road is about to convert into pothole?

e)       Is any portion of footpath/road caved in? 

f)       Is there any open man-hole?

g)      Is there any falling pole, railing, wire, overhead sign board, tree branch, dead animal lying on road etc?

h)       Is there any obstruction on footpath creating problem for pedestrians?

i)        Is there any dug up space on footpath or road inadequately barricaded or lying unattended for many days?

j)        Is there any unpainted zebra crossing or speed-breaker?

k)       Is there any encroachment on road or footpath?

l)        Is entry & exit points of footpath have appropriate poles fixed so as to prevent climbing of vehicles on it?

m)     Is there any water logging, construction material, debris, damaged vehicle or any other kind of material lying on road?

n)       Is there any disowned vehicle lying on road?

o)      Is there any damage to any kind of street furniture?

p)      Any other issue, as per common sense of concerned field staff,

q)      Is there any heavy tree with indication of uprooting?

 

[REJIMON C K]

Dear All,

Govt spend recurring expenses on these pointed item almost every quarter or yearly basis.

The exchequer drain amount to billions are involved in this.

A country where even today where NO roads and no Access on the other hand spend Huge amount on the repeated infrastructure just because NO IMPLEMENTATION or LACK OF POLICY.

SUPERVISION = This is not exist in the current generation of Engineers. If this is not their job assigne it some one else.

MAINTENANCE = NO interest in maintenance whether preventive or post. As the budget for that is very low allocated.

What Mr. Sanjeev enlisted even if Monthly basis done will improve the situation.

 Govt initiated DIGITAL WEEK- The digitisation and Mobile-Governance could play a big role in this matter. Provided there is GOOD Intention to develop one software/aap with centralised data for State wise.

Regards

Rejimon

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[Arun Banerjee]

Respected Pradhan Sewak of India,  Sir,

Had suggestions provided by public are taken seriously, the scene would have been different today. What has not been done in the past so many decades must be done now not only in the interest of public convenience but also in larger interest of the nation building.

We should not forget the death of Shri Satyendra Dubey,an officer of Indian Engineering Service served NHAI who exposed corruption in NHAI. That may be a case of a big project. But small cases reported by ordinary citizen about the happenings in their neighbourhood should not be ignored if Government and authority want to make India a corruption free nation with world class infrastructure and facility.

It has been noticed that authority ignore the complaints or suggestion provided to them and do not act on it. 

Thanks & regards,

Arun Banerjee

On Sun, Jul 5, 2015 at 3:35 PM, Sanjeev Goyal <cwa...@gmail.com> wrote:

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অরূণ ব্যানার্জী 

αrun ßanerjee

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[Surjit Chetal]

absolutely correct sir. Let digital india start with such monitorings which would also help in swatch Bharat compaign

chetal sk

[Kiran Dambalkar]

With no hirings / new posts permitted in govt. depts. since years, where will the
manpower to post these data on the website come from ? Such transparency is
already mandated under RTI guidelines anyway.

Dr Kiran D

On Mon, 06 Jul 2015 21:22:10 +0530 Surjit Chetal wrote

>absolutely correct sir. Let digital india start with such monitorings which would

also help in swatch Bharat compaignchetal sk

On Mon, Jul 6, 2015 at 10:28 AM, REJIMON C K wrote:
Dear All,

Govt spend recurring expenses on these pointed item almost every quarter or yearly
basis.
The exchequer drain amount to billions are involved in this.
A country where even today where NO roads and no Access on the other hand spend
Huge amount on the repeated infrastructure just because NO IMPLEMENTATION or LACK
OF POLICY.
SUPERVISION = This is not exist in the current generation of Engineers. If this is
not their job assigne it some one else.
MAINTENANCE = NO interest in maintenance whether preventive or post. As the budget
for that is very low allocated.

What Mr. Sanjeev enlisted even if Monthly basis done will improve the situation.

 Govt initiated DIGITAL WEEK- The digitisation and Mobile-Governance could play a
big role in this matter. Provided there is GOOD Intention to develop one
software/aap with centralised data for State wise.

Regards

Rejimon

Get your own FREE website, FREE domain & FREE mobile app with Company email.

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[REJIMON C K]

http://cvc.nic.in/cteguide_ie.pdf

I dont think any EMBARGO on hiring staff, you got to any department will find numerous young people counter to back processing in Govt.

Within few weeks of joining they inherit the attitude of others..

You may also find that the so called COMPASSIONATE appointments (May be there is SCAM in that too) is very high in all Departments.

The data if exists in paper can be easly maintainbale and most importantly save crores of Trees and Amount if its in Digitial format.

The CVC even manadate many such things..

Have a look on this..

http://cvc.nic.in/cteguide_ie.pdf

We all can pray & appeal like these -

[Sanjeev Goyal]

I recall as per National Productivity Council DDA is 40% overstaffed.

 

Further, if there is understaffing how PWD is able to manage false road inspection reports. How double carpeting is happening on some roads?

[R. Dua]

Respected DF sirs,
The hirings are being done in govt depts, banks, psu's n DU.
But on contract basis.
Regards.

[Ramnath Kumar]

The best was to make maintenance efficient and cost saving is to BUILD ROADS PROPERLY. Road construction is given to lowest bidding contractor. The MCD Engineer passing the bills of the contractor takes a percentage, never checks what is laid in the name of road and the roads vanish in two months. Highest level of corruption in this field. There are no standards and specifications for road construction in this country and if there are any, they are made only to be flouted.. The contractors make all the money and become councillors and MLAs and MPs and even Ministers. We, the common Men rue the rest of our lives.

For a change, when a road is made in front of your society, let 40=50 members of the society stand their to check how it is being laid and let every member put his foot down and demand a proper work. Get the MCD officials and demand explanation. Then see the difference. Such roads will not need frequent repairs and maintenance. We have to hit at the root cause and not cosmetics.

The awareness among the public is more important than anything else. We, as Indians have no unity among ourselves. We are incapable of fighting the administration. We are a flock of sheep always looking for a leader to follow. We blindly follow the leader and every damn thing in this country is politics. We will immediately talk about BJP, Congress, AAP and fight among ourselves. We don't stand united on issues affecting us and act unanimously. We are incapable of having an MC election with unanimity and even after the elections, once a MC is elected, the opposition remains always an opposition. Even if the M C does a good work, the opposition has to object. We extend this policy to social issues also. WE HAVE TO DECIDE FIRST WHAT WE WANT, STAND UNITED AND GET THINGS DONE.

Ypurs

Ramnath Kumar

Evergreen apartments

9999797808

[Surjit Chetal]

Such society will remain miserable always.There are no more any effort on buiding character of children.In public schools we do not find any effort for NCC...We can start from the society itself.LEt every society clean the storm water drain in front  and around  the society.There will be no water logging and damage to the road will be substantialy reduced.

chetal s k

[Ramnath Kumar]

Cant agree with you less. Character building is totally absent in homes, schools and in society these days. Our kids have have no physical friends, only whatsapp and facebook friends. No interaction among people and everybody is self cantered.  In our times there used to be EVENINGS, These days evenings are missing. Parents have no time to teach morality and community living to children. If a boy does something wrong and if he is admonished, the parents come out only to fight and take the boy away thereby denying him the opportunity to learn something good.

Perhaps, as you suggested, if every society takes care of the area around them, the entire colony would remain clean.

Who bells the cat?

Ramnath Kumar

[Arun Banerjee]

I agree with Shri Ramnath ji. Parents are either busy with morning and evening walks and gym. If during their walk they use their mobile for some social cause, it will make a great difference.

Arun Banerjee  

[R. Dua]

Talking about rightful behaviour and road safety.
Have been observing that the domestic airport cut, after the palam flyover and before underpass is misused regularly by mostly sarkari employees going for their duty in cars to palam airport.By taking wrong turn and creating traffic mess.

One traffic constable does sit on the said crossing with no avail.
What rightful behaviour we expect from kids when adults are making the most from just about everywhere.