Contractors served notices over road damages under Defect Liability Period, told to repair them at own expense

Indian Express

3 days ago

IN A major crackdown against defaulting contractors for road damages across the state, within 17 municipal corporations and 149 municipalities limits, the state government has issued notices and penalised several contractors.
As massive public anger and backlash followed the collapse of Gambhira bridge in Vadodara on July 9, and with the corporation elections due within a year, the civic bodies have issued notices to over 25 contractors falling within the Defect Liability Period (DLP), who have been asked to repair 659 km of damaged roads across 17 municipal corporations.
Sources in the state government stated that this is the first such massive campaign against contractors over road damages.
Explanatory notices have also been issued to the engineering staffers of municipal corporations.
'The repair work is closely monitored centrally, daily, and the municipal corporations and municipalities have been directed to rectify the damages at the earliest. Wherever negligence will be found, corporations will take stern action against whoever is responsible,' M Thennarasan, Principal Secretary, Urban Development and Urban Housing Department, told The Indian Express.
Meanwhile, the government has claimed to have repaired 99 per cent of damaged roads in the state. As on Wednesday, 577 km of road stretches, which had been damaged, were repaired and 16,665 out of 16,832 potholes stood repaired across the state's municipal corporations, it said.
While the Surat Municipal Corporation issued notices to nine road contractors, it penalised them to the tune of Rs 50.42 lakh for potholes and damages found on the roads during the Defect Liability Period (DLP). SMC officials claim that almost all the major roads in the city have been repaired.
Surat Municipal Commissioner Shalini Agrawal said, 'Since the last five days, we have been running a drive to repair and resurface the roads in Surat city. The work is done in all nine zones in the city limits. We first issued notices to the road contractors and later penalised them to the tune of Rs 50.42 lakh. The two hot mix plants of SMC operate as per the demand of the zones. Both plants have been working 24/7 for the last few days to meet the demand for hot bitumen and other materials. Till now, over 270 roads within the city limits have been made, and over 4,000 tonnes of bitumen have been used. SMC is personally looking after the repairing and resurfacing work.'
Similarly, in Vadodara city, while 12 contractors have been issued notices and penalised to the tune of Rs 18 lakh, show-cause notices have been issued to nine deputy engineers of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation.
'Out of a total of 3,300 potholes, 3,000 have been repaired. Out of 38.42 km of damaged road, 37.48 km has been repaired, the remaining work will be completed by tomorrow (Thursday). Also, bitumen patchwork has been completed on 18 km of stretches. Notices have been issued to deputy engineers and they have been asked for explanations for lack of attention towards their work. If their explanation is not found satisfactory, disciplinary action will be taken against them,' Arun Mahesh Babu, Municipal Commissioner of Vadodara, told this paper.
In Junagadh, notices to three contractors were issued recently while the process of issuing notices to another two is underway as part of a citywide drive, Junagadh Municipal Commissioner Tejas Parmar told this paper.
Similarly, nearly three engineers and two contractors have been penalised in Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) too, officials stated. In Ahmedabad alone, over 7,200 potholes have been repaired this monsoon.
'If various contractors in the state still do not complete the repairs of roads under the DLP within the stipulated time frame, or if any accident or loss of life occurs due to their negligence, strict criminal action will be taken against them. No contractor who shows negligence will be spared and strictest action will be taken against them as per the law,' the state government stated on Wednesday.
The Urban Development Department has completed more than 99 per cent of the work on a war footing in the eight municipal corporations — Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Gandhinagar, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar and Junagadh.
'In these older eight municipal corporations, out of 312 km of dilapidated roads, more than 310.68 km of roads have been repaired. The remaining works will also be completed quickly within a week. Apart from this, asphalt patch work has been completed on a total of 55.86 km of roads,' the government stated.
Further, 15,123 potholes were reported post rain in these eight municipal corporations of which 15,004 have been filled, the government said. Out of the total 15,985 complaints received by these corporations regarding roads, potholes, cave-ins and waterlogging, 14,633 have been disposed off and the remaining will also be resolved immediately, the government assured.
In the new nine municipal corporations, the Urban Development Department has repaired more than 266 km of roads out of around 347 km long damaged roads in Mehsana, Nadiad, Anand, Navsari, Vyapi, Surendranagar, Morbi, Gandhidham and Porbandar. In addition, asphalt patch work has been completed on a total of 10 km of roads.
There were 1,709 potholes on various roads in these nine municipalities, out of which 1,661 have been repaired. Further, out of a total of 676 complaints received related to roads, potholes, cave-ins and waterlogging, 649 have been resolved.
In addition, out of a total of 2,951 potholes and pits on roads falling under the six Regional Commissioners of Municipalities of the state, namely Bhavnagar, Gandhinagar, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot and Ahmedabad, 1,878 have been filled. Also, out of a total of 834 complaints received in these six Regional Commissioners of Municipalities, 818 complaints have been disposed of immediately.