Gujarat High Court raps civic body over shoddy road repairs

The Gujarat High Court reprimanded the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) over poor repair and resurfacing work on roads that have been affected by the rains.

The court said that the civic body was more concerned about the Prime Minister's visit and was not taking its order seriously.

The second division bench of justice MR Shah and Justice BN Karia was hearing a Public Interest litigation filed by Mustak Kadri. During a previous hearing of the case, the AMC had submitted its reply but the court was not satisfied and had sought a detailed report. When AMC faile to submit the report again on Monday, the bench said, "It seems that AMC officers are ignoring court orders. Why are you not submitting a detailed action report on the washed away roads, potholes and resurfacing work? Even the vigilance department's report inquiring into the poor quality road has not been presented."

The court has given one more week to AMC to submit detail report. It has asked the corporation to submit details about its plans to address the washed away roads and potholes. The court further said that the corporation had resurfaced only 30km of the 202km of roads. Some patches in the city were resurfaced ovvernight before the Prime Minister's visit, but court orders are taken lightly.

The bench said, " When the First Lady of Japan was to pass on the IIMA road, the road was resurfaced within six hours. If you can do that, why are you taking more time for other roads. Ahmedabad has been declared a heritage city but the quality of roads don't meet the standards. Why is it so? No levelling is done on roads after the potholes are fixed."

Petitioner's advocate Amit Panchal's submission was that there was no serious investigation into the poor construction, or which officers are responsible for it.