‘No road repair needed’

KOCHI: Unlike all other years, this year’s monsoon preparations can do without road renovations. According to the Corporation, 90 per cent of the city roads are in a state to bear the rains.
“There are no major repair work to be done. The roads have not suffered any serious damage since we repaired them last year,” said Soumini Jain, Chairperson, Works Standing Committee, Kochi Corporation.
Meanwhile, the 13 Corporation roads which were handed over to Public Works Department (PWD) last year have been re-assigned to Kerala State Construction Corporation (KSCC). The move was made after PWD quoted an amount more than the government sanction. “We had finished all the tendering procedures related to the repair works of the roads. However, the quoted amount was 34 per cent above the sanctioned amount and the government stated that only 15 per cent cost escalation was permissible. Since the particular contractor refused to work for the amount, the tender had to be dropped,” said T I Jose, Executive Engineer, PWD.
The KSCC will be reinitiating the tendering process and the road repair work is expected to begin post-monsoon.
In September last year, the roads were handed over to PWD after the High Court severely criticised the Corporation and the State government for the pathetic condition of the roads. Even though the court had set the deadline of September 30 for PWD and the Corporation to finish road works, the deadline was later extended to November 30 for PWD and December 15 for the Corporation.