Nagpur Municipal Corporation(NMC) plans to convert 23.45 kms of major roads from asphalt to cement. Of the 33 shortlisted tar roads, 17 are in South-West assembly constituency, which is represented by Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
NMC chief engineer Rajiv Gaikwad told that it has invited tenders for executing the works that will cost ₹296.46 crore. The NMC, which administers the city of over 40 lakh residents, claims that its road concretisation drive will permanently end the pothole problem, which gets aggravated during monsoon, when the city receives most of its annual rainfall and experiences flooding.
The civic body spends crores of rupees every year to fix potholes on tar roads and expects the concrete roads to have much lower maintenance cost despite the high initial cost.
The NMC had already converted 690 kms out of 1,556 kms of tar roads to cement under phases I, II and III. The roads selected under phase IV are major stretches with width between 9 mtrs and 24 mtrs. The 33 roads to be concretised have been divided into 14 packages, with six of them in Laxmi Nagar zone, which falls under Fadnavis’ constituency. Eight roads from Dharampeth zone too have been selected for the work.
Besides, the NMC had also approached the state government seeking ₹700 crore for implementing two more cement road projects under phases V and VI.
The condition of most of the 33 roads is bad with pothole repair works giving motorists a bumpy ride. Because NMC had planned to convert these roads into concrete, no renovation was carried out for over a decade, said a source.
Civic experts said that NMC should ensure that cement roads are not raised above the present height lest they cause waterlogging during monsoon.
Meanwhile, ongoing road works in the city are already causing congestion, resulting in diversions at different places. More road concretisation would mean Nagpurians’ struggle with traffic jams continues.
