KOLKATA: The restoration of the city’s major roads, which are being dug up for providing utility services, has taken a back seat. The roads that were already dug up months ago have not been restored yet.
For instance, a long stretch of Golf Club Road (now, Udaysankar Sarani), which was dug up several months ago for laying water supply pipes, needs urgent repair. Though a temporary repair work had started after the pipe work, the entire stretch cries for an immediate restoration.
Swapan Mukherjee, a resident of Golf Green and a retired bank official, complained about an abnormal delay in repairing the dug up stretches of Golf Club Road. “We didn’t complain about the digging of the road when we were told that it was necessary for laying water supply pipes. But after the completion of the work, only shoddy repair work was done months ago. Now a long stretch of the road is in a bad shape,” said Mukherjee. Sandip Thakur, a college student and a resident of Golf Club Road, alleged that accidents are on the rise because of the dug up stretch. “The KMC has been neglecting to repair the battered stretch of the link road, which puts bikers at risk at night.”
A KMC roads department official said that they had taken up the restoration of Golf Club Road from the Golf Green end but could not complete the work due to the dearth of manpower and funds. “The number of our road repair workers in the borough has come down to such an extent that we have now decided to hire agencies for the work. Some roads that were dug up for laying water pipes or other utility services have not been repaired properly. The Golf Club Road being a vital link road, so we will repair the road properly after the completion of the last phase of water pipe work,” said a KMC water supply department official.
