Restore Sector 17/18 dividing road to motorable condition by Nov-end: GMDA to HSVP

The Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA), on Tuesday, wrote to the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) asking the latter to restore the 30-metre-wide

The Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA), on Tuesday, wrote to the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) asking the latter to restore the 30-metre-wide road that divides Sectors 17 and 18 to a motorable condition by the end of November.

HT Image

GMDA’s letter has come in the backdrop of a series of complaints it received over the past six months from daily commuters about deep and dangerous potholes that make commuting difficult on the stretch, damage vehicles and pose danger to residents’ lives.

While the road was transferred to the GMDA earlier this year, the authority will only take over the 2-km stretch once the HSVP repairs it. The HSVP has assured the work would be completed as soon as the Supreme Court-ban on construction across national capital region

Residents and shop owners said the road was last re-carpeted in June 2017 and it started developing potholes within a year’s time.

The Sector 17/18 dividing road connects NH-48 (from near Iffco Chowk) with Old Delhi Road, which caters to Sectors 17 and 18. The stretch is dotted by numerous motor workshops and service centres, the main source of traffic and encroachments.

“We wrote to the GMDA in June this year to repair this road, since the HSVP had transferred the road to the GMDA in January, 2019. But nothing happened. This year’s rain washed away whatever was left of the bituminous upper layer. There are many potholes, and majority of them are dangerously deep,” he said.

A senior GMDA official on condition of anonymity said when government awards road construction/repair work to a contractor, there is a provision in allotment letter called defective liability. “This means that the contractor has to maintain the road for four years from allotment of works. Being the custodian authority of this road GMDA has written to HSVP to restore it to a motorable condition to make the transfer process complete,” said the official.

The official said traffic volume – all light and heavy vehicles – is always high on this two-kilometre stretch.

GMDA chief engineer Jitender Mittal said, “I spoke to HSVP officials to repair the road under the defective liability rule by end of November. The contractor will have to comply otherwise his bank guarantee will be forfeited.”

The HSVP official said the repair work will commence as soon as the ban on construction is relaxed by the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA), a committee formed by the Supreme Court to control and prevent pollution.

“The contractor will start repair work soon after Supreme Court relaxes ban on construction activities,” said Bhup Singh, superintending engineer, HSVP.