80% of Hyderabad has poor drainage, and this is killing our roads, says survey

While the lifespan of a well constructed road should be 20 years, the study claims that Hyderabad’s roads can’t last even 3 months.

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The Bad roads in Hyderabad have become a headache for the road users in the city, especially after the heavy floods in September last year that left several roads damaged. Now, a survey has found that the number of roads that need repairs is as high as 70%.

Smart Infrastructural Engineering Services Trust, along with 150 students from various engineering colleges, conducted a survey called ‘Save Hyderabadies On Wheels (SHOW) - On Hyderabad Roads,’ to identify the bad roads and provide solutions on how they can be improved.

P Surya Prakash, founder of Smart Infrastructural Engineering Services Trust, who headed the survey, says that while the lifespan of a road should be 20 years, the roads in Hyderabad couldn’t last more than three months.

“The main factors responsible for bad roads are Bitumen failure and water logging. There is no proper drainage system in 80% of the city. There is no system to dispose water as the roads are not connected to drainage pipes. Most of the slopes are not uniform,” he says.

“We noticed that the engineering standards have gone down. Technical approach and best practises are missing while laying roads,” he added.

The survey was done between October 22 to 30, from 4am onwards. The college students split into 40 teams to monitor roads in the wee hours when there was no traffic.

Surya Prakash points outs that while contractors lay the roads at night, they fail to maintain high temperatures of bitumen in a hurry to finish the job, thereby compromising with the thickness standards, which decreases lifespan of the road.

“If you ask the engineers to provide the drawing of the road they won’t be able to, as they are not maintaining proper structures. The state allocates around Rs. 200 crore for repairing roads every year, but the condition is not satisfactory, because that is a temporary solution,” he says.

Due to the pressure to repair the roads faster, resurfacing is being taken up as a temporary measure, which is causing more harm, he adds.

The report says that nearly 25% of the roads are damaged due to bitumen failure while 11.11% due to sand deposits on the roads. Around 9% of the roads are damaged because of waterlogging and dry pits across the city.

“70% of the roads in the city need proper repairs, not temporary solutions. Instead of shelling huge amount of money every year, GHMC should take up permanent solutions. We have submitted the report to the chief engineer and the GHMC commissioner on January 12. We have also explained the remedies and calculation behind our solutions to improve the quality of the roads,” Surya Prakash says.

The survey also says that 15% of the roads in the city are severely damaged and need immediate repairs, and nearly 50% of the roads are moderately damaged.