Maharashtra to hire contractors who use mechanised methods to repair roads

Mumbai: With Maharashtra featuring among the states with the highest number of deaths due to pothole-ridden roads in urban and rural areas, the state public works department has rolled out an ambitious plan to award contracts to those contractors who will use mechanised forms of repairing roads. The state has allotted Rs 1,300 crore towards the same and the tendering process is also underway.

A PWD official said that the contract for nearly 50,000km of roads in the state would be given to a handful of contractors as it would also be easier to monitor them and fix accountability. “Another condition placed on aspiring contractors is that they will upload photographs of the stretches they have repaired in real time. This will make it easier to affix the blame for accidents and make contractors more diligent,” he said.

Additionally, the PWD has decided to hand over contracts of 10km stretches of road as the earlier method of fixing responsibility for bad work got hampered by the fact that repair contracts were given to different contractors at different times. Under the new scheme, there will be a contractor responsible for the allotted stretch for a two-year period. 

Finally, the official said payments to contractors would also be deferred. “The intention is to ensure contractors do not do sub-standard work and pocket the money. The payments will be made in a deferred manner over a period of two years and some amount will be paid after expiry of the contract period,” he said.