Ahmedabad Municipal Commissioner Banchhanidhi Pani has directed civic officials to report how many kilometres of road have actually been resurfaced, rather than focusing on the quantity of hot-mix material used, as the municipal engineering department accelerates work before Diwali.
The instruction came after the commissioner questioned officials about the progress of road-resurfacing work. According to the report, engineering officials responded by citing production figures and the number of metric tonnes of hot-mix material consumed. Pani told them that neither the quantity of material nor the production volume was useful to him or residents unless officials could specify which areas had been covered and how many kilometres of road had been completed.
The push follows a period of public concern over pothole-ridden roads in the city. With rainfall having stopped, resurfacing work has now begun at a faster pace, according to municipal sources cited in the report. The immediate administrative pressure is to complete road works before Diwali, while giving residents a clearer measure of what has been delivered on the ground.
The commissioner also directed officials to speed up the opening of roads in new areas developed under town-planning schemes. He said water, sewerage and storm-water lines should be installed before new roads are built, bringing the related works under a coordinated process.
Pani instructed the departments concerned to issue integrated tenders for this work. He warned that files for work undertaken without issuing such tenders would be rejected. The directive places coordination between road construction and underground utility installation at the centre of new-road development, rather than treating road building as a separate civil-works activity.
The meeting also covered an increase in garden-related complaints registered through the civic complaint system. An official explained that residents of private societies were cutting trees and plants and, instead of paying the charge for removing the resulting material, leaving green waste on roads and footpaths. Complaints were subsequently being filed about the waste, according to the explanation cited in the report.
The commissioner ordered an inquiry into such cases and directed officials to impose penalties on societies found responsible for dumping green waste in public areas. The civic administration’s stated next steps are to intensify road resurfacing after the rains, measure progress by completed road stretches, coordinate utility works through integrated tenders and investigate waste-related violations by private societies.
