PMC can fill up potholes in 5 to 10 min with Jetpatcher

Soon, the Pune Municipal Corporation might manage to repair potholes as soon as they appear. The civic body has imported a machine from New Zealand. Called as Jetpatcher, it is fully automatic and can even work during rain. On Friday, it was deployed in Bund Garden area.

Pramod Nirbhavane, head of PMC’s road department, said, “Earlier, we planned to use the same technology which Jalgaon Municipal Corporation is using. However, this new technology from New Zealand is more superior.”

Before the arrival of the monsoon, the PMC was to repair nearly 1.6 lakh sq metres of roads as a part of the pre-monsoon work. But when the monsoon arrived, PMC had completed 96,000 sq metres area of roads. The heavy rainfall in July exposed the poor preparation of the PMC as almost all roads were pothole-ridden.

The road department staff had a tough time filling up the potholes.
However, now the Jetpatcher will help the road department fill up the potholes faster and with better results. Nirbhavane said, “Right from cleaning the pothole to adding the final layer, the machine does all the work as it is fully automatic. It has a blower, which cleans the potholes. After cleaning, a layer of tar is added with jet speed followed by cold mix and a final layer of tar is added to level the pothole.”

“The machine takes only five to ten minutes to fill up potholes, which will help us repair long stretches of road in quick time. Since the machine is fully automatic, it will not require a large number of staffers as for the manual procedure of filling potholes,” Nirbhavane said.

Finally, civic body prepares  a policy for good quality roads

Soon, Puneites can hope for better quality and better designed roads. Acting on the Bombay High Court’s order, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has finally prepared a road policy for the city with specified standards for roads with the help of experts.

As part of the policy, for the time time the city will have a road planning unit that will undertake the planning of any new road to be constructed in PMC limits.

At present, the PMC does not have any planning unit and the officials involved in road works have to do planning of roads on their own, which sometimes results in errors.

The PMC has come up with the road policy following an order to that effect from the Bombay High Court. Retired judge Madhav Ghate, who is fighting against the PMC for better quality roads, had moved the high court in 2006 where he had filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in regards to the poor conditions of roads in the city.

In 2008, the High Court directed the PMC to frame a policy for quality roads but for five years, PMC did not act on it. Finally in 2012, Ghate’s lawyer filed a contempt of court petition in the high court, after which the court asked PMC to frame the road policy.

Pramod Nirbhavane, head of PMC’s road department said, “We have prepared the road policy with the help of experts and we will be submitting it to the Bombay High Court next week.” In this policy, the suggestions of experts in the road department have been included, which include formation of a planning unit at the PMC.

“Earlier, officials concerned would plan the road work, but once the planning unit is formed, all the roads plans will be prepared by that unit, which will be headed by superintending engineer and he will have staff which includes deputy engineer. A comprehensive road plan will be prepared by the planning unit, which will include planning of entire road and other connecting roads. After the comprehensive plan, the road department will execute the road work,” Nirbhavane said.