All over the city and suburbs of Panjim and other cities, roads are being dug up for drainage and other utilities. Now that most of the underground work is completed, the process of resurfacing the dug up parts of the road is going on in full swing. Many of the roads that were dug up had a hot-mix surface and the patchwork done on these trenches is pathetic. You see workers throwing in some stones, a parsimonious spray of asphalt, topped with fine grain stones and gravel and flattened by a road roller. The end result is a grainy, uneven and bumpy finish and the outcome of this shoddy work is there for all to see. After a few vehicles go over it most of the fine dust polluting the atmosphere for a few days, what is left are almost naked stones bereft of any asphalt cover which will be washed away in the first few rains leaving hard shoulders and deep fractures on the edges of the road endangering the lives of motorists and pedestrians alike. Besides, the left-over material everywhere on the sides of the road and the ones washed away by the rains will clog the drains and cause flooding. The entire monsoons, people will have to bear the brunt of this crude and unscrupulous repair work till another opportunist contractor gets to patch up the roads. Why should tax paying citizens bear with this when the only ones who benefit are some fly by night unqualified contractors in league with some officials who approve the tender and pass bills. How is such repair work passed and contractors paid should be a matter of investigation.
Shoddy Road Repairs
