Deputy Mayor Rahul Damle ordered officials to stop allegedly substandard pothole-filling work on Tilak Road and withhold payment for defective repairs.
Repair work on pothole-ridden roads in Dombivli was ordered to stop on Thursday after Deputy Mayor Rahul Damle said freshly laid asphalt could be removed by hand during an inspection on Tilak Road. Damle directed municipal officials to ensure that the work was redone to the required standard and said payments for substandard repairs should not be approved.
The inspection followed instructions from Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation Commissioner Abhinav Goyal to repair potholes and improve road conditions across the civic body’s limits before Ganeshotsav. Contractors had begun resurfacing damaged roads in several parts of Dombivli using crushed stone and asphalt mixtures. According to the report, smaller potholes were being filled with bags of the mixture, while longer stretches were covered using material delivered by dumper trucks and compacted with rollers.
Damle said he became concerned about the quality of the work while visiting different parts of the city from Wednesday. He stopped his vehicle on Tilak Road on Thursday morning and examined a section that had recently been resurfaced. During the inspection, the layer of stone and asphalt reportedly came loose easily when tested by hand.
The deputy mayor called construction department Executive Engineer Manoj Sangle to the site. BJP Dombivli East mandal president Mitesh Penkar also arrived during the inspection. Damle questioned officials about the quality of the roadwork and raised concerns that contractors could otherwise receive full payment for work that did not meet the required standard.
Damle also contacted City Engineer Anita Pardeshi and informed her about the resurfacing and pothole-filling work underway in Dombivli. He instructed the engineering department to stop the work immediately and ensure that road repairs were carried out properly. He said roads repaired in this manner could develop potholes again before the arrival of Ganesh idols, when traffic and movement through the city are expected to increase.
Executive Engineer Sangle questioned the contractor about the work in the Tilaknagar area. The contractor reportedly attributed the poor appearance of the surface to rain during the work. Sangle responded that roadwork should be stopped when it is raining, according to the report.
In a statement quoted by Loksatta, Damle said that the roads were being repaired by placing asphalt-mixed gravel and that a physical inspection had shown the work to be substandard. He said instructions had been issued to the city engineer’s department to halt the work and ensure that it was completed properly. Pardeshi and Sangle assured him that the resurfacing work would be strengthened and brought to the required standard. The municipal administration’s next step is to review the affected stretches and direct contractors to undertake compliant repairs before the Ganeshotsav deadline.
