PANAJI
Public Works Department Minister Nilesh Cabral on Thursday expressed need for making it compulsory for road contractors to give 18 months guarantee on the roads that they construct.
“Henceforth, when the roads develop potholes, contractors will not be able to shrug off their responsibility. They will have to take responsibility of repairing the roads if they develop potholes before the guarantee period,” said Cabral.
Speaking on the digging of the roads by other departments, Cabral expressed the need for keeping the tarred road untouched for at least two years after hot mixing. “Ideally, after hot mixing, at least for two years the roads should not be dug up. The digging should be pre-planned.”
Calling it a big and complicated process, Cabral said that the department will ensure that it will be streamlined soon.
PWD has its own budget, the government has also allotted budget, but PWD officers have to move one file at a time to the finance department, he said.
“The JDA and other staff from the finance department are in our department but still we have to approach the finance department,” Cabral said adding, “the budget that we (PWD) currently have is not sufficient.
Cabral also informed that machines will be hired to fix potholes from North to South Goa.
“The jet patch machines cost Rs 2 crore, and we want to outsource the job. We will work on the system as we are doing it for the first time. These machines are specially built so that work can be undertaken during the rains. As such, potholes can be fixed within half an hour”, he said.
Cabral also said people would be able to notify potholes to authorities by clicking a photograph. “Through the App, the photograph will go to the contractor and within 98 hours we will go to the site and fix it”, he said, adding, “this process is a little complicated, but if it fails it will be my failure”.
