The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has approved a sum of INR 22 lakhs to hire a consultant to manage the quality and supervision of road construction. The consultant is set to oversee road works, particularly concretisation projects, with the belief that it will eliminate the need for third-party audits. However, activists claim that the civic administration is shielding its staff from consequences.
Last year, the municipal commissioner took action against engineers and road contractors following public criticism over inadequate supervision of work. But civic activist, Vivek Velankar, accuses the corporation of evading blame and shifting responsibility. He believes it is the civic engineers’ duty to supervise road construction for improved quality and transferring the responsibility to a private party is a waste of public funding.
Suggesting a different approach, Sudhir Kulkarni, another civic activist, suggests that PMC should hand over all work to contractors to save administrative expenses. The state government had issued a circular a few years ago promoting the appointment of private parties or contractors for various tasks. Union minister Nitin Gadkari’s initiative of implementation of public-private partnership (PPP) model for road construction is a successful experiment, Kulkarni said.
PMC stands by its decision to hire a consultant asserting that it will provide essential support to the understaffed road department. With only 40% of the essential engineers, the workload has increased since the merger of 34 new villages within the civic limits.
Sahebrao Dandge, superintendent engineer, PMC road department, said that the consultant would assist in pre-tender and post-tender activities, inspections, and maintaining road quality. PMC would still be responsible for road construction in the end.
