KOCHI: Coming down heavily on the state government and the Kochi Corporation, the Kerala High Court on Monday refused to grant additional time for completing road repair works.While the state government sought time till December 31 for completing the works, the corporation wanted three more months. Justice Harun-Ul-Rasheed directed the state government and the corporation to complete the work as early as possible. The directive was passed on a petition filed by C P Ajith Kumar. “There is no point in convincing the court alone that the maintenance is over. The government should convince this to the people. Are the monsoon and heavy traffic the real reasons for the delay? What would be the permanent solution to the issue?” the court asked.Counsel for the petitioner, advocate Jaju Babu, suggested that concreting of roads as in Mangalore and Mumbai and ensuring a guarantee for the repair works were the solutions. Appearing for the state, Additional AG K A Jaleel submitted that the state had to spent `1 crore for concreting one kilometre of road. Hence, it is difficult to complete the work at one stretch. Several roads have been selected for concreting, he submitted. The state submitted that more than 92 percent of the repair work had been completed. The remaining work will be completed by year-end. According to the PWD, the remaining eight percent work was due to potholes developed as a result of rains in November. The repair work of the NH, undertaken by the PWD, is almost complete, he added.Corporation engineer N M Nahas submitted that the corporation was making every effort to comply with the court order. The corporation submitted that the condition of roads has been improved to a certain extent. “In the People’s Planning project 2011-12, a total 174 road works were tendered. Of these, work orders were issued for 71 roads,” he said. The court expressed its dissatisfaction over the lack of progress and said the corporation should face the consequences for the delay in complying with the court order.
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