E-Paper
Chandigarh MC, NITTTR to sign pact to carry out quality check of roads
A copy of MoU about monitoring the work will be tabled in the upcoming House meet
The Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Sector 26-based National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research (NITTTR) to carry out quality checks of the city roads.
A copy of MoU about monitoring the road construction work in the city will be tabled for approval during Monday House meet. Following the signing of MoU, no road work will be undertaken before quality check by NITTTR teams.
Presently, no organisation is looking into the quality check of road work.
A junior engineer’s (JE’s) recent letter to the municipal commissioner had brought to the fore the redundancy of quality control system in the civic body’s road division wing.
JE Suresh Chand who works in the quality control branch said, “New roads are being constructed in the city without asking the road division branch to take samples from the construction site, let alone getting the material tested if it meets the required engineering specifications.”
After facing criticism for bad roads in the city, MC will now sign an MoU with an entity for 30 years to ensure that quality of re-carpeting work is not compromised .
Bigger scope
Apart from quality check, the institute will conduct a survey of the road to ascertain the type of treatment required in view of cost effectiveness and life cycle of roads. Moot point here is whether MC should push for more concrete roads in Chandigarh that has a life span of more than 20 years compared to five-year cycle of bitumen roads.
Besides, coming up with long term solutions and inspecting whether the construction specifications are followed, the institute will also maintain records of each road, entailing details about materials used in construction and repair.
MC road division will provide data to the institute about all the information related to road network.
As per the MC agenda, the pact with the institute will help them in saving the annual cost of road maintenance by 20 to 25% on long term basis assuring quality control of city roads.
