MARGAO: Realising its folly of repairing potholes with cement concrete mix, the PWD has now decided to remove the concrete layer and fill it up with bitumen instead.
Directions to that effect were issued by the additional collector Prasanna Acharya while chairing a meeting of the Road Safety Council at the South Goa collectorate on Thursday.
The issue came to the fore at the meeting after some members raised concerns over the safety of road users as the potholes and road stretches repaired with cement concrete have turned uneven.
“The PWD engineers who attended the meeting acknowledged the inefficacy of their solution. They said that they already sought expert advice and will accordingly remove the cement concrete layer and tar it with bitumen,” Acharya later told reporters.
Taking serious note of road side illegal structures encroaching on roads, Acharya directed panchayats and municipalities to immediately act against them. At the last meeting of the Road Safety Council, Acharya had said that in cases where it is established that a loss of life or a grievous injury caused to a road user is because of existence of such illegal structures, then the concerned elected member along with secretary or chief officer, as the case may be, would be held accountable.
Taking note of cases where road dividers are installed arbitrarily thereby posing risk to road users, Acharya directed the PWD to ensure that road dividers are erected only on such roads which have adequate width as mandated. The power house Aquem to Davorlim road was pointed out as an instance, and the PWD assured to remove the dividers when the work of hotmixing of the road would be taken up. Acharya said that in case of accidents owing to such road dividers, accountability will be fixed on the PWD engineers including initiating criminal prosecution against them.
Date: October 04, 2019
Leave a Reply