12 Kolkata: After a long delay, about 30 km of road stretches across Salt Lake will get fresh layers of bitumen coating. State fire and emergency services minister and Bidhannagar MLA Sujit Bose on Friday announced that the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC), along with the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA), is formally taking up thorough road repair work from Monday. Repair work will formally start from a stretch in Nayapatti.
The poor condition and lack of maintenance of roads across Salt Lake have been major concerns for the civic body, with several stretches lying in poor condition for a long time. " I spoke to the urban development minister, Firhad Hakim. The availability of bitumen was a problem, which is now resolved. The Rs 25 crore work tender has also been completed," Bose said.
"The state govt has sanctioned Rs 25 crore as KMDA has also prepared a Rs 12 crore road repair scheme, out of which Rs 4.5 crore has already been sanctioned. Work will continue for the next one month," Bose said.
Civic engineers said that BMC would be repairing about 22 km of road stretches in Salt Lake, while KMDA will repair about 8 km of the main thoroughfares. "KMDA will mainly repair the stretches on the main road, while BMC will carry out the repair of the roads passing through the blocks," an official said.
Most residents said road repair work was delayed for a long time. "The sooner repair work is taken up, the better it is. The quality of roads should be such that it lasts at least a few years after being repaired," said Krishnendu Chowdhury, a resident of Salt Lake CL block.
"Several stretches have been lying in tatters for a long time. The civic body has been making repeated promises of thorough road repairs. Hopefully, they fulfil it this time," said Snehashis Maitra, a resident of Salt Lake AE block.
"We want to ensure the longevity of roads. The contractor repairing a road stretch will be responsible for its maintenance for the next five years. It would be checked that good quality material is used for the repairs," BMC mayor Krishna Chakraborty said, adding that repeated offenders will be blacklisted.
BMC recently proposed to allocate Rs 76 crore for the development and maintenance of roads and pavements across the BMC areas of Salt Lake and Rajarhat-Gopalpur in the next financial year, starting April 1.
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