If you have to dig up a road for laying two cables, then common sense dictates you will apply for both permits and finish the work simultaneously to save money and minimize inconvenience to road users. However, callous MSEDCL officers, who are neither bothered about the company's money nor road users, dug up the same road twice in a span of two months to lay two cables.
This has caused a loss of at least Rs 5.5 lakh to the company which will be subsequently recovered from consumers through the power tariff.
MSEDCL had dug up a 1.5km stretch of East High Court Road, from RPTS Road to Central Bazaar Road, about four months ago to lay four 11 KV cables under phase I of infrastructure upgradation plan. The cables were placed inside a duct, which was covered by a concrete slab. A few days later, the road was again dug up to lay 33 KV cables under phase II of the plan.
Shockingly, the 33 KV cable duct was adjoining the 11 KV one. When road was being dug up for laying the 33 KV cable, the 11 KV duct including the top slab was damaged at many places. Now, MSEDCL is once again laying another slab adjoining the old one.
A P Joshi, physical training instructor of Ambedkar College, said that there seemed to no end to road digging. "There seems to be no logic for digging up the road twice by a single agency. In the coming months NMC will dig up the road for laying water pipelines. Then it will be the turn of telecom companies. Nobody thinks about the common man."
Joshi further said that students were unable to enter the college premises with their vehicles from the main gate. "The building material lying on a portion of road has made the stretch slippery."
Arvind Lade, pharmacist with Bombay Chemist, and Atish Walke, who works in a photocopy centre, said that their customers had a lot of difficulty crossing over the trench. "There is no logic in doing the same job twice," Lade said.
When any agency applies for a permission to dig up the road it has to pay a charge of Rs 2,45 per metre. In addition, it has to give an undertaking that it will refill and tar the road, which costs between Rs 350 per metre. Thus the cost comes up to around Rs 18 lakh for this stretch.
While project in-charge executive engineer D M Meshram said that he applied for permission from NMC as and when a particular work was sanctioned by head office, one his colleagues admitted that had the two cables been laid simultaneously it would have at least saved 30%.
BOX
Double Trouble
Stretch of Road - 1.5km (approx)
11 KV cable laid - about 4 months ago
33 KV cable laid - present
Cost of digging and refilling road - Rs 9 lakh
Cost of doing it twice - Rs 18 lakh
Saving if done only once - Rs 5.5 lakh
This has caused a loss of at least Rs 5.5 lakh to the company which will be subsequently recovered from consumers through the power tariff.
MSEDCL had dug up a 1.5km stretch of East High Court Road, from RPTS Road to Central Bazaar Road, about four months ago to lay four 11 KV cables under phase I of infrastructure upgradation plan. The cables were placed inside a duct, which was covered by a concrete slab. A few days later, the road was again dug up to lay 33 KV cables under phase II of the plan.
Shockingly, the 33 KV cable duct was adjoining the 11 KV one. When road was being dug up for laying the 33 KV cable, the 11 KV duct including the top slab was damaged at many places. Now, MSEDCL is once again laying another slab adjoining the old one.
A P Joshi, physical training instructor of Ambedkar College, said that there seemed to no end to road digging. "There seems to be no logic for digging up the road twice by a single agency. In the coming months NMC will dig up the road for laying water pipelines. Then it will be the turn of telecom companies. Nobody thinks about the common man."
Joshi further said that students were unable to enter the college premises with their vehicles from the main gate. "The building material lying on a portion of road has made the stretch slippery."
Arvind Lade, pharmacist with Bombay Chemist, and Atish Walke, who works in a photocopy centre, said that their customers had a lot of difficulty crossing over the trench. "There is no logic in doing the same job twice," Lade said.
When any agency applies for a permission to dig up the road it has to pay a charge of Rs 2,45 per metre. In addition, it has to give an undertaking that it will refill and tar the road, which costs between Rs 350 per metre. Thus the cost comes up to around Rs 18 lakh for this stretch.
While project in-charge executive engineer D M Meshram said that he applied for permission from NMC as and when a particular work was sanctioned by head office, one his colleagues admitted that had the two cables been laid simultaneously it would have at least saved 30%.
BOX
Double Trouble
Stretch of Road - 1.5km (approx)
11 KV cable laid - about 4 months ago
33 KV cable laid - present
Cost of digging and refilling road - Rs 9 lakh
Cost of doing it twice - Rs 18 lakh
Saving if done only once - Rs 5.5 lakh
0 comments:
Post a Comment