Road cuttings to be regulated: Dr Walia

New Delhi, Apr 12 (UNI) Delhi Urban Development and PWD Minister A K Walia today directed civic agencies to initiate urgent action to streamline entire procedure relating to road cuttings in the capital.

He further directed to adopt a holistic approach in respect of permission for road cuttings instead of piece meal approach which was bringing bad name to the city because of frequent cuttings and delayed removal of malba from the roads.

Dr Walia issued these directions in a meeting, which was attended by PWD Engineer-in-Chief R Subramanyam, all Chief Engineers of PWD and senior engineers and officials from Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Public Works Department, Delhi Development Authority, MTNL, Delhi Jal Board and the Discoms (private electricity distribution companies).

Dr Walia had asked all departments to prepare their annual action plan in respect of cuttings on roads and submit it to the concerned departments -- PWD, MCD and DDA -- for seeking necessary permission for digging of roads to lay cables/lines for utilities/services in Delhi. The action plan was to be submitted in April itself.

He assured all organisations concerned with utilities and services that there would be no delay in granting required permission and all pending requests would be disposed off immediately.

Dr Walia also fixed a deadline for grant of permission, which would be issued in same month as far as possible.

Stressing on the need of transparency, he directed the concerned departments to place entire record relating to road cuttings on website.

Dr Walia had also directed his department to closely monitor the requests and convene a monthly coordination meeting.

A senior officer would be designated as a Nodal Officer to effectively coordinate between all departments.

He also instructed PWD, MCD and DDA to grant permission for road cuttings only for essential works.

Dr Walia made it clear that all roads in Delhi should be smooth and without visible cuttings.

The malba should be removed immediately after attending to work of road cuttings, he added.

The city must look like a world-class and beautiful city as it was preparing for the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

He further directed the concerned departments to adopt trench-less cutting as far as possible.

He also directed the Urban Development Department to prepare a digital map showing infrastructural details of utilities and services across the capital.

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