Kerala - Kochi   

Court directive to PWD

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday directed the Public Works Department (PWD) Executive Engineer to file an affidavit stating the reason why cracks developed in city roads such as Banerjee Road, Shanmugam Road and Edappallay-Thevara Road.

Justice K.M. Joseph also directed the engineer to produce the road charts of these roads prescribed under the PWD manual.

The engineer was also directed to state when the works for repairing these roads were awarded.

The directives were issued when a writ petition seeking a direction to repair the city roads came up before it. The court also ordered the engineer to provide priority to the over bridges while undertaking repair works.

In an affidavit, the engineer informed the court that the repair of these roads were on and would be completed by August 31.

The Government had sanctioned Rs.50 crore under the Calamity Relief Funds for repairing the roads. The department was making efforts to mobilise skilled labourers for doing the repair works.

Meanwhile, the Government contractors decided to take up road works temporarily from Thursday. The contractors had been avoiding all contracts from July 1 because of non-payment of dues.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, P. Viswanathan, general secretary of the All Kerala Government Contractors’ Association, said that since the Government earmarked Rs.165 crore to clear dues and Rs.50 crore for the immediate works, repairs would be taken up from Thursday.

This was decided by the State committee of the association, which was hopeful that the Government would consider the demands put forward by them. The association asked the Government to provide bitumen for all the works and to modernise the work culture.

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