Ahmedabad road resurfacing work has been accelerated after the rains, with Municipal Commissioner Banshanidhi Pani directing civic engineers to report the roads and kilometres completed rather than focusing only on the quantity of hot-mix material used. The instruction comes as the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation faces pressure to repair pothole-affected roads before Diwali.
According to municipal sources cited in the report, road resurfacing has begun across the city after the rain stopped. During a review of the work, engineering officials reportedly responded to questions by citing production figures and the number of metric tonnes of hot-mix material used. The commissioner objected to that method of reporting and asked officials to provide area-wise details of how many roads and how many kilometres had actually been resurfaced.
The direction shifts the immediate focus of the civic review from input volumes to completed infrastructure. The report quoted the commissioner as saying that neither he nor citizens were interested simply in how much hot-mix had been produced or consumed. Instead, officials were asked to identify the locations and length of roads completed, making the physical output of the work the central measure for the review.
The municipal engineering department has been under pressure after a public dispute over pothole-ridden roads began to subside, while the deadline for completing resurfacing before Diwali approached. The source report does not specify the total number of roads, the exact kilometres targeted, the budget for the work or the completion deadline for individual locations.
The commissioner also directed officials to speed up the opening of roads in new areas covered by new town planning schemes. Before constructing new roads, departments were told to complete the installation of water, sewerage and storm-water lines. This instruction is intended to prevent newly built roads from being opened again for utility work.
For this work, the commissioner ordered the concerned departments to issue integrated tenders covering the related activities. He reportedly warned that files for work carried out without issuing such integrated tenders would be rejected. The direction places responsibility on the municipal departments to coordinate road construction with underground utility installation before the final road surface is laid.
The review also covered complaints related to the municipal garden department recorded through the civic complaint system. An official reportedly told the commissioner that residents of private societies were leaving trimmed trees and green waste on roads and footpaths instead of paying the applicable charge for its removal. Complaints were then being filed about the waste left in public spaces.
The commissioner directed officials to investigate the matter and impose penalties on societies found to be disposing of green waste improperly. The report does not identify the number of complaints, the applicable removal charge or the amount of any proposed penalty. The municipal review is therefore expected to proceed through location-wise reporting on resurfaced roads and inquiries into the green-waste complaints.
