Gurgaon: Fresco residents pool funds to repair potholed road

Fresco residents used cold mix technology to fix potholes on the road

Tired of waiting for the authorities to take up repairs of their damaged road, residents of the upscale Fresco apartments in Sector 50 took the onus on themselves instead. Upset over the civic body allegedly dragging its feet in the matter, residents pooled money and got a fresh layer of concrete laid on the road.

Fresco RWA sought a voluntary contribution of ₹1,000 and spread the word using WhatsApp groups. Many residents paid more than ₹1,000. In less than a week, they collected the required money and got the work started. (HT PHOTO)

They used cold mix technology to fill the potholes, which is five times cheaper than the concrete material generally used in road repairs. Residents said the monsoon would have made entry to their residential complex an arduous affair if they had not taken this step.

Cold mix asphalt is a combination of mineral aggregate and emulsified or cutback asphalt with additives.

The residential society is located inside Nirvana Country and the 140-metre stretch connecting the society to the main road, was badly damaged and riddled with potholes.

After the MCG allegedly refused to re-lay the road despite repeated requests, residents decided to collect money and run repairs on the stretch. The move, they said, was critical to saving their vehicles from getting damaged.

“We conducted a survey among our residents using technology and the social media. We used Google forums asking residents to choose between three options — wait for the MCG to repair the road, contribute money and repair the road or put pressure on the builder and ask them to repair the road,” Nilesh Tandon, president, RWA, Fresco apartments, said.

As many as 70% of residents opted for contributing money and building the road.

Based on the survey response, the RWA members did a research on the material required to lay new road and fill the potholes. Since monsoon was approaching, using bitumen was not the solution as unless there is a proper drainage system, water accumulates on the road and the bitumen gets washed away.

“We found that in the Western countries cold mix technology is used to fill potholes and this technology has also used in the Northeast and south India. We got in touch with some organsations in Bangalore and Hyderabad who had been using this technology and took their advice. A lot of data was available on the internet and we learnt about the advantages of using cold mix,” Tandon said.

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Residents got tenders of ₹15 lakh to lay the new road, but by adopting cold mix technology they could fix the potholes by spending ₹1.5 lakh, saving 90% of the money.

The RWA sought a voluntary contribution of ₹1,000 and spread the word using WhatsApp groups. Many residents paid more than ₹1,000. In less than a week, they collected the required money and got the work started.

One bag containing 25 kg of Cold mix costs approximately₹350 and 400 bags were used to fix potholes on the entire stretch of road from T-point to the Fresco entrance.

“Few of our senior citizens stood and supervised the (road laying) work,” Supriyo Dasgupta, secretary, Fresco RWA, said.

MCG’s joint commissioner (IV) Gaurav Antil said, “The area is still with Unitech developer, as it has yet to hand over the colony to the MCG. Hence, there is no liability on us.”