BMC opts for piped cross-ducting to ensure road longevity

The BMC which claims it is taking all measures to see that city roads are monsoon-ready as early as possible, has decided to opt for piped cross-ducting to ensure roads remain in good condition.

Till this year, the civic body used to allow cross sectional laying of optical/electricity cables or other utilities in a conventional way beneath a road. And when a road is dug up for utility work, it would break the constituency of the road strata, weakening it. In order to address this issue, the corporation said it had instructed all contractors doing road improvement works to construct piped ducts in order to replace cables easily without having to dig up the street concerned.

"A road's quality deteriorates if it is dug up cross-sectionally. To address the issue, we have instructed contractors to go for piped cross-ducting for both asphalt and concrete roads. This is for the first time that we have opted for such a system," additional municipal commissioner SVR Srinivas said.

As reported in dna earlier, BMC has undertaken improvement/construction of nearly 1,000 roads at a cost of Rs 3,000 crore. "We are going to use such cross-ducting in construction of all roads," he said.

Meanwhile, BMC said it has instructed all contractors under defect liability period (DLP) to repair project roads they are working on. These works are in addition to the preventive maintenance works the civic body is carrying out at a cost of Rs 28 crore. "All these works will be finished by May-end," Srinivas said.