MCD plans ‘concrete’ action on city roads

Learning from last year’s monsoon, the MCD is now planning ‘concrete’ action on roads prone to water logging. The civic body has chosen around 32 potholed roads that see waterlogging and traffic chaos during monsoons in West Zone to begin the work with.

Learning from last year’s monsoon, the MCD is now planning ‘concrete’ action on roads prone to water logging.

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The civic body has chosen around 32 potholed roads that see waterlogging and traffic chaos during monsoons in West Zone to begin the work with.

For this, tenders have been invited and the work will start with the roads in Naraina industrial area.

The MCD, which promised to provide concrete roads in Delhi in their budget this financial year, will use the German bitumen foam technology. “This technology ensures longevity and pothole-free surface for a period of more than 20 years,” said a senior MCD official. The compaction, uniform thickness and smoothness of the surface of these roads is ensured through the use of mechanical pavers to lay the roads.

According to the civic body, although constructing concrete roads is costlier than the normal bitumen roads, these are more economical in the long run as they last longer. “From now on, all new roads will be laid in concrete. The existing bituminous roads will also be topped with an ultra-thin white layer of fibre-reinforced, high-strength concrete,” added the official.

However, the decision to concretise roads has failed to find support from many quarters including within the MCD. “Concretisation tampers with the process of rain water percolating through the ground. Besides, an important point that the civil engineering department has failed to understand is the importance of creating slopes even along the concrete roads to enable the water to percolate through drains, an essential for rain water harvesting,” an MCD official said.