Motorists, pedestrians have a harrowing time negotiating busy but potholed byroads in Kochi

Innumerable roads that run through residential colonies and commercial avenues in the city are in dire need of repairs, with most contractors not taking up patch and resurfacing works by citing dues that date back to 2020.

With this, the Kochi Corporation, which was citing rain as among the reasons for not being able to execute repair works, has been caught on the back foot, since rains took a break over three weeks ago. The result was that people had to put up with rickety roads even during the festive season.

Terming the condition of many roads as alarming, State general secretary of Residents Associations Coordination Council (RACO) Kuruvilla Mathew said the civic body had failed to properly restore damaged parts of the arterial Thammanam-Pullepady Road, giving a harrowing time for two and three-wheeler riders, bicyclists and pedestrians. He blamed slack coordination between agencies like the Kerala Water Authority and the Kerala State Electricity Board, and those that own roads for trenches being dug indiscriminately to lay pipelines and cables, and not restoring them in a timely manner. “Potholes, encroachments and unsafe footpaths/road shoulders have made matters worse for users, and accidents and traffic snarls have become the norm in the city,” Mr Mathew added.

Lamenting about the deteriorating condition of roads maintained by local bodies across the State, president of Kerala Government Contractors’ Association Varghese Kannampilly said most of them were not designed to cater to high traffic density and overloaded goods carriers. “The three-year delay in clearing dues of contractors and the resultant unwillingness to participate in tenders has added to the situation going from bad to worse. There are also other grave anomalies like the non-revision of rates for raw materials. For example, we get only ₹6,500 per barrel of bitumen, while it costs over ₹10,000 in the market.”

The Corporation can save considerable funds and clear its dues to contractors, if it focused on preventive maintenance by deploying a mobile pothole repair unit, said Antony Kureethara, Opposition leader in the Kochi Corporation.

“There is little use repairing potholes after there is public outcry in the wake of accidents that claim lives,” he said.

Public works standing committee chairperson Sunitha Dixon said most contractors were bidding for only works that are done using general funds and those that get ‘payment priority’.