Kejriwal announces 10-year plan for road repair and maintenance

According to the plan that the chief minister announced at a press conference, the state government will spend ₹4,500 crore in the next one year on repair and maintenance of major streets

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday announced a ten-year mega road repair and maintenance plan in a massive push to several ongoing road beautification projects across the city, underlining state government’s focus on sprucing up public infrastructure in national capital.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the state government will deploy a third party monitoring system with dashboards and vehicle mounted cameras to keep a check on the implementation of works listed by the government. (PTI)

According to the plan that the chief minister announced at a press conference, the state government will spend ₹4,500 crore in the next one year on repair and maintenance of major streets, road furniture, foot overbridges, subways, green patches and regular washing of the capital’s roads. The government will spent ₹2000 crore each subsequent year on the programme, Kejriwal said.

He said that the plan also involves hiring of over 100 mechanical road sweeping machines, 150 tankers and sprinklers and 250 anti smog guns-cum-sprinklers which will be deployed for regular washing and sweeping of roads.

The maintenance work will include de-silting (twice a year) of drains, steps to prevent waterlogging, replacing damaged trees fused lights as well as coordinating with all civic bodies. The project also includes setting up of a control room to monitor day-to-day activities and progress at all levels.

Giving the timeline of the project, Kejriwal said that the state cabinet is expected to grant approval to a series of projects in the next ten days. He added that work orders are expected to be issued by March 20, and actual work on the ground may begin from April 1, 2023. The agencies will first take up the 1400 km roads that are maintained by the Public Works Department. All of these streets are wider than 18 metres. Narrower streets are maintained by Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

“All the footpath and central verges on these roads will be repaired. All broken manhole covers, pre-cast slabs, damaged poles and signages will also be repaired. All subways, railings, electrical fixtures, pedestrian bridges and street furniture will be maintained, and potholes and cracks on road surface will be cleared. We will complete the repair work in six months. Once the repair work is complete, we will issue a 10-year maintenance contract so that anything that is damaged will be immediately repaired within 24 hours of a complaint, so that streets look squeaky clean,” Kejriwal said.

He added that the maintenance provision will also involve repair of potholes within 24 hours. “Streets will be resurfaced twice during the 10-year contract period. We see that the road markings, footpath, zebra crossing fade away, so they will be repainted in a 3-6 months cycle,” he added.

The Public Works Department (PWD) is already implementing a separate road beautification project, in which new pavements are being constructed and road furniture is being installed across arterial stretches in the city.

According to the economic survey of Delhi, the city has a total road network of 17,882 kilometres.

Washing and cleaning

The government also plans to engage agencies for scrubbing and cleaning city’s streets. “Under this contract, roads will be washed thrice a week and footpaths will be cleaned daily. We will also hire mechanical sweeping machines. The clean up will also involve washing of the shrubs and trees along the streets. Agencies will used deep scrubbing machines and litter picking machines to remove debris and garbage,” the chief minister said.

“150 water tankers and sprinklers will be hired for washing the roads, and another 250 anti-smog guns-cum-sprinklers will be hired for washing streets and trees on colony streets. We have 250 wards so one such machine will be deployed in each ward,” he added.

The chief minister said that treated waste water for state government’s waste treatment plants will be used for washing roads. He added that besides removing illegal posters, banners on roadsides, green pockets will be made on central verges. “It will be 10-year contact under which plantation, trimming, washing, watering, putting manure and maintenance of good soil will be covered,” he added.

Monitoring and complaints redressal

The state government will deploy a third party monitoring system with dashboards and vehicle mounted cameras to keep a check on the implementation of works listed by the government. “Third party independent monitoring will be carried out. We will have vehicle mounted with cameras which will be roaming across Delhi and capture images of works being done. All this will monitored on a dashboard. The contract will also have the provision of levying heavy penalties if the work is found unsatisfactory,” Kejriwal said.

He added that a system will be put in place for citizens to lodge complaints.

S Velmurugan, chief scientist and head, Traffic Engineering and Safety Division, Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), said that prima facie it seems to be a very unique model and a step in the right direction. “The arterial 1400 km of roads carry 70% of traffic and I don’t think any other government has attempted something on this scale. The idea seems to be good but it will depend now on implementation, monitoring and compliance,” he said.