CRRI To take Stock of city's Ailing Roads

Newspaper: Pune Mirror
Date: 20th July 2016
Source Link: http://www.punemirror.in/pune/civic/CRRI-to-take-stock-of-citys-ailing-roads/articleshow/53290648.cms

             PMC chief has written to the institute, seeking aid

Taking stock of the issue of potholes, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) commissioner Kunal Kumar sought help from Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) on Tuesday. Kumar sent a letter to CRRI to provide guidelines to patch up the city's roads through a detailed survey.

In a two-page letter, Kumar said, "Pune is leading the smart cities mission through implementation. The fact that the Prime Minister was in Pune recently to inaugurate key projects in the city exemplifies its vision. While we are moving towards envisioning the future of the city, there are some issues of deep concern. One of these is the recurrent failure of road infrastructure."

CRRI is a premier national laboratory — located in the national capital and established in 1952 — and a constituent of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). The institute is engaged in conducting research and developmental projects on the designs, constructions and maintenance of roads, runways, traffic management and the transport systems of cities.

This is first time that PMC has sought aid from CRRI to tackle road infrastructural issues. The civic administration has decided to carry out a thorough investigation and analysis of the problems with the intention of coming up with the necessary improvements to avoid recurrence of the flaws. Various aspects, such as the material used, the methodology adopted, compliance with the applicable technical specification and code of practices, among other things have to be thoroughly reviewed as a part of the probe.

PMC demanded a report on matters related to maintenance within two months and submission of the final study with recommendations within three months. The letter also outlined the scope of work. It continued, "Various sites of bituminous and concrete roads have been identified by PMC for investigation of the typical cases of failure." Road design deficiency, faulty construction methodology, poor material quality, wiring treatment or process, inadequate layer thickness and lack of stormwater drainage, among other flaws in the infrastructure were highlighted in the letter.

Speaking to Mirror, Rajendra Raut, superintending engineer of PMC's road department said, "The civic body is spending around Rs 10 to 15 crore on maintenance of city roads every year. Out of the total 2,500 kilometres of road, 300 kms are cement concrete, 200 kms have thin white topping and the remaining falls in the category of bituminous roads. We are ensuring the best possible practices for making these roads durable according to the Indian Road Congress (IRC) guidelines. This initiative will give us a clearer view of problems that ail the city's roads."