Maharashtra relies on 550 contractors to maintain 55,000 km of roads

After drawing immense flak over potholes last year, the state public works department has decided to outsource repair and maintenance work to be done on 55,000 kilometres of roads to 550 contractors across the state for two years.

And to bring in transparency and improve accountability, the contractors have been asked to put up information boards bearing their names and contact numbers, along with those of PWD engineers and other officials who are supposed to look after the road.

"These boards will be displayed every 10 km of PWD roads including highways, so people can register their complaints," said Ashish Singh, the principal secretary of PWD. "We have also developed a mobile app for people to upload photos of bad roads and potholes along iwth their locations."

The instructions follow NCP's 'selfie with pothole' campaign last year asking people to tag PWD Minister Chandrakant Patil of the BJP in photos with bad roads and potholes. The embarrassed minister has, therefore, decided to hold contractors responsible this year.

Senior government officials said the department used to allot contracts during monsoons when the roads were already damaged. "It was very difficult to maintain the roads then. The allotments were done at the local level and the contracts were awarded without following proper procedure. This year, we decided to float a tender to allot the work. Many firms showed interest and the work on 55,000-km of PWD-owned roads has been given to 550 contractors across the state," said a senior PWD official.

Most of Mumbai's roads and highways are maintained by BMC and MMRDA.