Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Wednesday spoke up in support of civic chief Subodh Kumar, who has been facing severe criticism for the sorry state of roads across the city.
Chavan said the allegation made by union leader Sharad Rao that the civic chief was planning to assign the recent Rs 550-crore road contract to a cartel of contractors is “politically motivated and has no truth to it”.
Backing Kumar’s initiatives for improving the state of the roads, Chavan said: “I had given him instructions regarding strengthening the criteria of conditions for inviting roads tenders, which he has done.”
Chavan said he has asked Kumar to invite contractors of international repute when the second phase of roadworks takes off. “They should first study and survey the roads and come up with a technology to address the problems,” he said. “Getting a certain person on board just for getting the lowest tender rates means compromising on work.”
Chavan said doing road repairs and giving contracts was no easy task. “Big companies don’t want to do small work. There are hundreds of roads to be laid but everything depends on traffic police permission. But if you use the same old companies, what is the guarantee that roads will be repaired properly?” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Chavan said doing road repairs and giving contracts was no easy task. “Big companies don’t want to do small work. There are hundreds of roads to be laid but everything depends on traffic police permission. But if you use the same old companies, what is the guarantee that roads will be repaired properly?” he said.
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