Delhi PWD to repair potholes by Friday: Kejriwal

In an attempt to make Delhi pothole-free, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday announced that PWD will repair spotted potholes as he doesn't want potholes to tarnish Delhi's image.

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said 232 potholes spotted by the MLAs on city roads under the PWD will be repaired by Friday.

He said 50 MLAs had inspected a stretch of 50 kilometres each in their respective constituencies and had given the data to the Public Works Department.

"Around 50 MLAs had recently inspected 1,260 kilometres of PWD roads in the city. All of the 232 potholes found from the inspection will be repaired by tomorrow. 283 patches of broken roads were also found, which will be repaired by October 31 and 272 uneven patches of roads discovered will be resurfaced by November 30," said the Chief Minister.

He said that there are 392 spots where construction work by various agencies is in progress.

"I have called a meeting of all the concerned departments and agencies on October 23, and the deadline for completion of construction work will be given to them in the meeting. There are also some spots where the construction work has been completed, but the roads have not been repaired yet due to a lack of coordination between different agencies. We will ensure that the restoration of roads is done at a faster pace and construction deadlines are given to all the agencies," Kejriwal said.

Kejriwal had prepared a plan to free Delhi's roads from potholes. On October 5, a team of MLAs accompanied by officers started inspecting the roads under the jurisdiction of the PWD. The team consisted of a PWD engineer with one MLA.

After the preparation of the data, the bad roads have been notified for repair and the repair work has been started.

"I believe that after this, the roads in Delhi will be free from potholes. As part of the drive, the roads under the jurisdiction of the PWD will be completely pothole-free. Delhi is the capital of the country, we want to make the roads of Delhi clean and safe and a symbol of pride for India," he said.

Kejriwal had on Monday convened a review meeting with Health Minister Satyendra Jain, secretary of the PWD and other senior officials. The department shared the survey data with them in the meeting.

During the meeting, the Chief Minister directed the department to fix every pothole found during the survey by October 18.

When the officials told the Chief Minister about the delay in the work caused by other departments, he said that he would sit with officials of all the departments to find a solution.

Kejriwal said: "Any road damaged due to the construction work carried out by other departments of the Delhi government should be rectified at the earliest and I will intervene in cases where the No Objection Certificate is pending."

He said he does not want potholes to tarnish Delhi's image.

"People from all over the world visit Delhi. The deteriorating condition of roads here bring disrepute to the country and the image of the state is tarnished. That is why the Delhi government has decided to repair 1,260 kilometres of roads under its jurisdiction."

He said all roads in Delhi do not come under the jurisdiction of the Delhi government.

"Yet, the Delhi Government decided to repair all the roads which are under the jurisdiction of the PWD. The campaign was launched and we have achieved excellent results," he said.