One man hired by contractor, paid Rs 600 a day, struggles to fill puddles with muck and rocks in mockery of road repair process
Use mud to fill potholes, and cover it with pebbles — these were exactly the instructions a road repair worker in Kharghar was given by his CIDCO-appointed contractor.
Of the roads that were up for repairs in Kharghar this week, mid-day visited some and found that the recently resurfaced roads exposed the poor quality of work along with the substandard quality of materials used. Alam Shaikh, a worker who gets paid Rs 600 per day, was seen following his contractor's instructions near Kharghar railway station.
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Daily wager Alam Shaikh picks up muck taken out of nullahs to throw into the potholes as per the 'contractor's instructions.' Pics/Rajesh Gupta
Shaikh was merely pushing in some mud (more like muck) into the pothole before covering it with some pebbles. "My contractor has asked me to insert this mud into the potholes and level them. I have to use the pebbles and broken stones later to cover it all up," he told mid-day.
Was this a permanent solution? "No," said Shaikh, adding that mud and stones were of zero use. "It won't last too long. The contractor will use sand later to resurface the entire road and complete it with tar."
After filling it with muck, the CIDCO contractor covers it up with stones and gravel
Many arterials and main roads in Kharghar are either in a completely poor condition or paver blocks have been used in patches to cover potholes. Workers were seen undertaking repair without removing or cleaning the old debris at the spot. Especially in sectors 3 and 6, where the resurfacing work was recently carried out, the picture looked particularly bad after a couple of showers of rain the week.
'Rain stopped work'
A CIDCO official inspecting the work said, "We began work in full swing but due to the sudden rain, we had to stop work. The resurfacing of roads makes no sense when the roads are wet and it doesn't last long. I am aware that the roads are in bad shape and our site engineers have already inspected them. We have given the list of roads for repairs to the contractor and work would begin soon after Diwali."
The state of the roads opposite Kharghar station bus depot
'Work part of handover process'
Three-time Panvel MLA Prashant Thakur (now a BJP member) told mid-day, "All roads under CIDCO have to be resurfaced before being handed over to Panvel Municipal Corporation (PMC) in the next six months and this work is part of that process," he added.
As part of the handover, CIDCO too has to give 270 plots across Kharghar, Kamote, Kalamboli and Panvel to the PMC where "we are planning to come up with an integrated smart city concept that has hawker zones, plots for recreation and gardens which will be developed by the PMC over a period of time," Thakur explained.
Tenders have been floated for two overhead balancing water reservoirs in Kharghar, Kalamboli and Kamothe but owing to higher bids, a new tender will be floated after Diwali and work will begin by December, he said.
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