NEED TO IMPROVE CONDITION OF ROAD TO REDUCE ACCIDENT

Despite the government’s stricture for wearing helmet while driving not reduced any road accident. The govt. is running away from their own responsibility for maintaining  good and pothole free road.   The other problem even if the road is repaired with patch work, it is very difficult for a driver to ply their vehicle freely without any obstruction. One side people are facing pot hole, even after some repair work, the uneven road and the patch work done on the road look like creating a speed breaker. Every time, the drivers are blamed for any road accident. Like the pothole the patchwork done on the road is also look danger.  The driver cannot comfortably drive the vehicle due to this uneven road and pothole. Govt. used to spend lakhs and crores of rupees in the name of road repair with no better result again and again reappearing lots of pot hole and uneven roads.

Every year, PWD used to maintain the road on a piecemeal basis by just making a patch work.  In this account, govt. is loosing crores of rupees.  The other problem is every time, the PWD and Municipal agencies used to select from the cartel of contractors of their own choice. While inviting tender from contractors, the cost of work and the work did not match as they quote very less amount on this contract. A new contractor cannot work on this specification and quoted rate.  Thus the concerned authorities get the old contractor of their own choice and the same set of cartel of contractor get the contract. They never serious their work. They prefer to do patch work with the consent of officials and they receive the payment for the full work. Through delays also, they raise the quoted price in the name of rise of material prices. The contractor extract the sum what they actually need to give for making a good road without doing any serious work. This is happening all over India since independence. There is no transparency and accountability. The neighbours in the area and beneficiary never knows  how much amount they sanctioned, who is doing the work, who is the responsible for. Thus the tax payers money drained and govt. on the other hand try to increase and collect taxes from the people for the same work.  This process is never ending.

The first and foremost solution is to concretize the road with good contractors.  The people of the respective area should know all the details by putting it on a notice board in their respective area.  The contractor and the official should take the signature from the people of the area with their name, address and signature, so that the contractor and the official cannot runaway from their responsibility.  Once the contract is awarded, the same contractor should be banned for 5 years.  All contract work should be completed within one year only. The contractor’s capacity to complete the job also considered. The respective govt. try to avoid small repair work/ patch work and  should ensure that the surface is smoothly maintained without making uneven surface which attracts frequent accident.