'Road repair agencies will have to guarantee longevity for a time-frame'

Kolkata: The agencies associated with road repair under the jurisdiction of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will now have to guarantee a time-frame, assuring that roads will not be damaged within that time period. If it is found that roads are battered before that time-frame, the particular agency will have to bear the expenses of repairing the damaged road.

"The tender contract from now on will include this new clause in the form of a time-frame. The agency involved in road construction will have to guarantee the road's longevity for a fixed duration. The time-frame will be finalised by KMC soon," Mayor Sovan Chatterjee said on Tuesday.

Chatterjee held a high level meeting with his team of engineers and director generals of some departments and took stock of the progress of repair of roads in the city. Chatterjee told reporters after the meeting that more than 90 percent of the roads have already been repaired. Responding to a query about the bad condition of roads at EM Bypass, the Mayor said that only a stretch of around 100 metres near a private hospital in Kasba needs repair, as the remaining portion of the stretch that connects Garia in the South with Kolkata Airport, has already been mended.

He added that some construction materials have piled up in that stretch due to work for the Metro project and the matter has been taken up by Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd. and Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority, which is responsible for the maintenance of EM Bypass.

It may be mentioned that the state government has allocated Rs 70 crore to KMC for roads and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has made it clear to the Mayor that all roads need to be repaired on an emergency basis.

As per Banerjee's instructions, KMC will be the nodal agency and if there is a delay on the part of any agency in road repair, KMC will have to do the work and the adjustments of funds can be worked out later.