Maintain good roads, Dikshit tells PWD

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit instructed the Public Works Department engineers on Wednesday to concentrate on maintenance and upkeep of roads, street lights and sign boards, inspecting them in their respective areas at least once a week.

“The city government is committed to enhance the beauty and image of the Capital. The senior engineers should take a round of localities under their control at least once a week to personally assess the deficiencies in maintenance to suitably take up the repair and restoration work. The concerned superintending engineers would be held responsible for any lack of maintenance,” said Dikshit in the meeting attended by PWD Minister Rajkumar Chouhan, Chief Secretary P K Tripathi, Engineer-in-Chief V K Gupta and other senior government officials.

Dikshit, while underlining the importance of maintenance, said it is a continuous process and the government has earmarked four per cent of the project amount for proper upkeep and maintenance. If needed, this can be increased, she added.

The CM said the condition of roads, street lights and signages must be of high standard especially as the city aspires to become world class.

“The street lights should be 100 per cent functional. It has been observed that dirt gets collected on both sides of the flyovers. Further, accumulation of malba on certain roads has also been noticed,” Dikshit told officials while deciding to have a permanent agency to lift rubble from the roadsides.

The PWD should procure machines to repair potholes at accident-prone stretches of the roads. The issue of frequent digging up of roads by different agencies was also discussed.