RAIPUR: Amidst a war of words intensifying between the opposition BJP and the ruling Congress over the state’s pathetic roads, a road doctor machine, brought from the national capital Delhi, has now been pressed into service for patchwork in the Chhattisgarh capital Raipur.
Raipur Municipal Corporation's (RMC) action comes at a time when chief minister Bhupesh Baghel has directed the authorities concerned to make the state roads free from potholes by this December. Opposition BJP has intensified its campaign against dilapidated road conditions with its senior leaders extensively taking to social media, posting pictures of bad roads from across the state.
Raipur Municipal Corporation (RMC) on Monday claimed that hundreds of potholes within 2000 sqft of roads have so far been filled within a week. Besides road doctor machines, manual methods are also being used to expedite the work, as per the instructions of RMC commissioner Mayank Chaturvedi.
RMC’s public works department superintendent engineer Hemant Sharma said that at present the potholes in the roads around Station Road, Telghani Naka, and Rathore Chowk are being filled. “We will be heading for the repairing work in the vicinity of Nivedita school after the completion of work in the said areas,” he said.
The road doctor machine is being used during the night to avoid traffic issues. This machine has a gas pipeline and it helps in melting the damaged road up to 140 degrees while ensuring quality in the repair work. The surrounding material does not deteriorate due to heating and therefore it is reused. After this, according to the need, more material is filled in the pit with this machine, he said. At present, the work is being done with only one machine. The second machine is also coming soon to give momentum to the work, he said.
Meanwhile, former chief minister Raman Singh on Monday posted photographs of dilapidated roads and took a dig at the Congress government saying that “After four years in power, the CM is taking at collectors’ conference about filling potholes instead of construction of new roads”. He said better roads are the right of respective regions.
