NEW DELHI: Promising a “world-class transformation” of city roads, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Saturday a beautification plan incorporating repair, regular cleaning and third-party monitoring of roads to check laxity.Addressing a press conference after chairing a meeting of stakeholders, Kejriwal said the Public Works Department would start repairing broken roads, footpaths and street furniture, fix the lighting system, repaint the zebra crossings and lane markings and improve roadside greenery from April and complete the project within six months.”A private agency will be given a 10-year contract for maintenance and upkeep, including repairing any damage within 24 hours. Every road will be resurfaced twice in 10 years and road markings, zebra crossing and footpaths will be repainted every three to six months. Roads, footpaths, trees and plants will be washed three days a week with mechanical sweeping, deep scrubbing and litter picking every day,” Kejriwal said.Making Delhi’s roads safe, aesthetically beautiful and commuter-friendly has been one of Kejriwal’s most cherished dreams. “We have resolved to make Delhi’s road a class apart, aesthetic and commuter friendly. We took up several pilot projects for this and now we will transform the 1,400km of roads under PWD’s jurisdiction,” he said.The CM added that footpaths and central verges would be repaired on “as and when necessary” basis and in contrast to the usual practice of replacing the tiles on the entire stretch of footpaths, spot repairs would be taken up. “If one stone is missing, it will be replaced. We will not misuse public funds,” said Kejriwal. “Damaged manholes, street furniture, railings, precast slabs, signage, electrical poles and lighting will be repaired. The railings and light fittings of all subways and pedestrian bridges will be repaired and all potholes and cracks on roads will be repaired.”Work orders for the repairs are expected to be given around March 20 for implementation by April 1. The government has also decided to deploy deep scrubbing machines to thoroughly clean the roads of all dirt and litter picker machines to pick garbage and debris from the roads apart from hiring 100 mechanised road sweepers, 150 sprinkler tankers and 250 anti-smog-guns-cum-sprinklers. While the sprinkler tankers will be deployed on large PWD roads, the smog guns will be handy in cleaning the smaller roads and lanes in city wards.He added that the plans are likely to be cleared by the Delhi Cabinet in the next 10 days. “In the first year, the project will cost Rs 4,500 crore while the recurring annual expenses have been estimated at around Rs 2,000 crore,” the CM said.PWD will use 10,000 kilolitres of water from sewage treatment plants every day to carry out the regular cleaning work. Removal of posters and banners from roadsides and central verges will also take place.”For rigorous monitoring, we will deploy a third party which will move around in vehicles fitted with cameras and record the live situation of roads and maintenance work. Heavy penalties will be imposed on the contractor in case of shortcomings,” Kejriwal said.The project also includes setting up a control room to monitor day-to-day activities and progress with a quick response vehicle at all levels and day-to-day supervision of workers.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/delhi-cm-arvind-kejriwal-promises-world-class-change-in-pwd-roads-from-april/articleshow/97408076.cms