Bad roads, Gujarat High Court pulls up AMC again

The Gujarat high court, on Thursday, came down heavily on the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) because of the civic body's poor progress with road repair and resurfacing work. Showing any leniency to AMC, the court said that only those roads which are often used by VIPs on a regular basis have been repaired, implying that the rest lies in negligence.

The second division bench of Justice MR Shah and Justice Biren Vaishnav was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by one Mustak Kadri. The court verbally said, "This is Gujarat and citizens of Ahmedabad expect best services and roads from the corporation. But, the body has failed to meet the expectation."

The civic body has been asked to identify the hampered roads and categorise them into three categories: severely damaged, less damaged and damaged roads. Apart from asking for a deadline, AMC will take to repair the roads, the court also sought the plan the civic body will follow to repair and resurface the roads. The court warned that in case it is not satisfied with the report, it will either appoint a Gujarat State Legal Cell Authority as a nodal agency or will constitute a commission to keep eye on the work.

The court reminded the counsel appearing for the corporation that despite asking AMC to also repair the metro rail link project, no action was taken either by the MEGA team or the corporation. Apart from the Metro work, 20-feet on each side of the road is available for commuting, but the abrupt parking of vehicles hardly leaves any space for the commuters to walk along the stretch.

Expressing equal concern for the areas that have been merged with the city limit area where the infrastructure needs attention, the court asked the chief town planner to personally appear before the court on next hearing. The court also said that the draft TP, pending since 2007, should be approved at the earliest to improve the infrastructure.

The court also asked the state government to look into the hassles of traffic congestion in the cities, especially the major ones in Ahmedabad city such as Pakvan and Shyamal junctions. The court said these places have boomed commercially over the recent few years, thereby giving rise to illegal parking.

COURT VIEW

• Civic body has been asked to identify the hampered roads and categorise them into three categories: severely damaged, less damaged and damaged roads. 
   
• HC asked Gujarat  government to look into traffic hassles, especially congestions in Ahmedabad city.