Corporation to lay new roads in about a week; gets ₹100 crore from TURIP

The Corporation of Madurai has invited tenders from eligible road contractors to lay new roads across the five zones in the city, said Commissioner Chitra Vijayan.

Following the monsoon rains and the completion of the underground drainage and the Mullaperiyar river drinking water project to the city, the roads had to be laid since they were in a bad shape.

Recently, the officials in the engineering division had taken stock of the damaged roads in the city and peripheries. The added wards (numbering 28) were dug up for providing Mullaperiyar drinking water project and to lay the UGD system.

A total of 141 kilometre covering 979 roads across five zones in 100 wards had been identified, where the roads had to be laid, they said and added that in the next few days, the tenders would be finalised and awarded to the contractors.

The Corporation had submitted a proposal to the State government and ₹100 crore had been earmarked through the Tamil Nadu Urban Road Infrastructure Project (TURIP), the officials said and added that the funds would be utilised exclusively for the road laying project.

The officials were hopeful that the tenders would be finalised within a week and before February first week, the roads would be completed.

Welcoming the efforts of the Corporation, some of the eco-activists said that a vigil should be kept while laying the roads by the contractors. Payments should be made only to those, who executed the works as per the tender rules.

A senior engineer said that they have amended the rules in such a way that it would benefit the user public and also the Corporation.

Similarly, they appealed to the Commissioner to ensure that the newly laid roads were not dug up at least for two years by any agency under any pretext as it would spoil the roads. Normally, for Under Ground Drainage related issues or to lay telephone cables, the private contractors indulged in digging the newly laid roads. Sometimes, even the civic body themselves dug up to fix the cement cover for the UGD system, which should be prevented, they added.