Crumbling roads? 'Sample' this

Have you ever wondered why a newly-constructed road deteriorates within a few months? A sample test carried out by the quality control cell of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) might have the answer.

Have you ever wondered why a newly-constructed road deteriorates within a few months? A sample test carried out by the quality control cell of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) might have the answer.

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As per the report of the MCD quality control cell, 23% samples in the past six months have failed the quality test. Details provided by the MCD’s quality control circle reveal that out of the 114 samples taken by the civic agency, 26 failed to make the cut.

“We take samples from places where road construction is being carried out. Those samples are then tested in laboratories. The results are then forwarded to all the departments for further action,” said a senior MCD official.

According to the civic agency, in cases where road samples fail, the contractors are asked to take action on them, either by way of imposing a penalty or even blacklisting them.

Although the civic agency claims that it asks those contractors whose samples fail to reconstruct roads, according to sources, more often than not this is not the case.

“Wherever we find that the contractor has not stuck to the rules and if they fail the quality test, we ask them to carry out construction of the road again. But it is impossible to keep track of each and every road,” added the official.

According to sources, at many places, contractors reconstruct the roads “on paper” but nothing is done on the ground.

Two years ago, MCD came up with a plan to make roads “stronger” by concretising them. The civic body identified 245 stretches adding up to 200 km, that would be concretised so they could last for at least 30 years. However, the plan could not become operational as the cost of concretising roads was five times costlier than the normal procedure.