Seven roads to be rebuilt

KOCHI: Seven roads in Kochi will soon get a facelift as the PWD has received administrative sanction to resurface them using bituminous macadam and bituminous concrete (BMBC), which will increase their longevity.The MG Road, Shanmugham Road, Broadway, GIDA Road,  Palarivattom-Kakkanad Road, Palarivattom-Vytilla Road and Park Avenue are the seven roads which will be resurfaced next year.“An amount of Rs 10 crore has been sanctioned for the work on Palarivattom-Kakkanad Road. The others will be carpetted using Rs 4-5 crore each,” said T I Jose, Executive Engineer, PWD (Roads Division). “The bituminous macadam and bituminous concrete are used for road tarring wherein bitumen concreting is laid over bitumen macadam, which is used for pothole filling. This will strengthen the road and increase the life-span of the road by almost three years,” he added.Currently, the PWD has invited tenders for the work. “The administrative sanction has been received and we have invited the tenders. The works will be sanctioned by January and will take another six months to be completed,” said T Venugopal, Assistant Executive Engineer, PWD (Roads Sub-division). Besides this, an amount of `12.15 crore has been sanctioned for BMBC tarring of 20 roads utilising  state funds, Fisheries funds and the MLA fund of Dominic Presentation combined. Nearly Rs1 crore has been sanctioned for the Kumbalangi-Eramaloor Road, K B Jacob Road, Fr Mathew Kothakat Road and Santo Gopalan Road each. The Thoppumpady-Edakochi Road has been sanctioned Rs 5 crore.“Four roads will be resurfaced using BMBC tarring under the state fund. Seven roads each from Kumbalangi and Chellanam will be carpetted using the Fisheries funds and the rest will be repaired using  the MLA fund,” said Dominic Presentation MLA. “The tendering process has been completed for ten out of the 14 roads commissioned by the Fisheries fund. Two bridges and two roads will also be repaired under the work,” he added.