NAGPUR: The problem begins at the planning stage itself, said businessman Nikhil Kusumgar when the panellists started dissecting reasons for the emergence of potholes on roads during monsoon. Pointing towards huge allotment of funds by the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) for construction of roads, he said, “Giving Rs300 crore for a project is not enough. The civic body needs to plan 50 years ahead by involving the public.”Chartered accountant Kirti Agrawal , former chairperson of ICAI, Nagpur, felt it’s a question of bringing accountability and fixing responsibilities. “Is there any life expectancy when it comes to roads?” she sought to know. Chanda Sinhababu, an HR professional, wondered why the road works usually start at the onset of monsoon. “These roads then develop potholes just after a few showers. Also, there is no proper monitoring when the work is being carried out,” she said. Kirti added that lack of coordination between NMC departments and also with government agencies like MSEDCL is responsible for continuous digging of the road.Educationist Yakub Vazir said the tendering process is flawed as there is more emphasis on appointing the lowest bidder than constructing better roads. Shrishty Aware, an architecture student, felt that the quality can be maintained even at low cost if the contractor executes the work properly. “Many times, there is problem with the road design and the materials used,” she said.Agreeing with them, Pramod Puranik, traffic head, city bus service said, “The contractor should give guarantee of at least five years for the road,” he added.Representing the civic body, Sunil Agrawal, chairman of NMC project committee, said that the road works are carried out as per guidelines of Indian Road Congress. “The defect liability period has been increased to two years from one year. We are mulling to increase it further.”Highlighting the cement concrete road project, Agrawal said that the detailed surveys on all aspects were done before taking up the project. “We tested the soil where these roads are to be laid and got the cement concrete developed accordingly. Now, we can also do real-time quality checks,” he said.Agrawal felt that the NMC was being made a scapegoat when multiple agencies like Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT), state Public Works Department (PWD), MSRDC and NHAI, too, execute road works in the city. Puranik said the civic body should then display boards giving details about the projects being executed by it to make citizens aware.Emphasizing how bad roads are affecting people’s health, Dr Satyajit Jagtap, associate professor of department of orthopaedics at GMCH, said, “There has been significant increase in spine and neck problems among citizens. On evidence basis, this can be attributed to bumpy rides due to bad roads.” He added that the lowest quotation should be replaced with best quotation while awarding tenders for road works. To this, Agrawal replied that as per new rules, if the bid is below estimate, a performance guarantee will be sought from the contractor.Presenting data obtained from NMC website on status of roads under defect liability period, Yakub said the civic body has stated that the condition of road was good and even the inspection committee has said the same in its report. “However, the reality is that many of these roads have potholes.”Agrawal claimed that notices have been issued to contractors of roads that have potholes but are still under defect liability period. “If such road is damaged, the contractor will have to repair it,” said Agrawal.Agreeing with Agrawal, Vijay Naidu, president of NMC Contractors’ Welfare Association, said the inspection committee has reported about damage to roads under defect liability period.Lack of regular maintenance is a major reason for the poor condition of our roads, said Swaima Ahmad, a Masters’ student and soft skills trainer.On question of whether corruption is responsible for poor quality road works, Agrawal doesn’t comment much except that he is “not in a position to talk about integrity of others in the civic body”.When Agrawal put onus on citizens for highlighting issue of bad roads, Ahmad pointed out that people fear that they may be targeted if they speak out and hence they tend to be neutral. “The present system is not citizen-friendly. We have to hunt for the right department and authorities for taking up any initiative with the NMC,” she said.Chanda and Yakub said there is no response or action from authorities even if complaints are made regarding bad roads or encroachments on them. Agrawal said there is too much workload on area engineers. “They have to reply to RTI applications and also remain present for court hearings,” he said.When Kirti and Kusumgar questioned how roads in areas like Civil Lines are well maintained, Naidu explained that there is good drainage system on these roads.Explaining how bad roads are also ruining families, Kusumgar added that potholes have caused many accidents and majority of the victims are two-wheeler riders. “Usually, these are people who don’t earn much and their death or physical disability due to such accidents hits their families badly,” he said.When some panellists pointed out how encroachment on footpaths is aggravating the problem, leaving pedestrians with no option but to walk amid heavy traffic, Agrawal said, NMC doesn’t have powers to take criminal action against the encroachers. “At the best, we request for police protection but it is not available all the time,” he said. As a solution, Naidu suggested people should not buy from illegal vendors and stop parking vehicles on roads.