THANE: The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC), heaped with criticism from elected representatives across party lines for poor conditions of the roads and shoddy repair works, has ordered a probe into the matter.Corporators blamed it all on the civic bureaucracy for pothole-ridden roads and accused the higher-ups in the TMC of an unholy nexus with road contractors.“The proposal for road works running into crores of rupees are put up before the standing committee at the last minute and often approved hastily without a studied debate. However, the administration has failed to build confidence and show results. Moreover, we have noticed that the norms for repair works are conveniently relaxed so as to suit a select few contractors, who are a preferred lot of the civic body, despite the fact that the rates quoted were abysmally lower than market rates. It is no surprise then that the roads are damaged so fast,” said Najib Mulla, NCP corporator from Rabodi.BJP corporator Manohar Dumbre also complained about the “inefficiency of the administration” to build and maintain the city, especially Ghodbunder Road. “Crores of the tax payer’s money is spent on repairing the roads. However, the condition has far from improved and huge craters are evident on most roads. The civic body seems to be least concerned,” he said.The elected representatives made a fresh demand for a thorough audit of the damaged roads in various parts of the city and the subsequent attempts by the TMC at repairing them. Corporators complained that the civic body has been using several techniques to repair the roads, but to no use as the damages keep recurring with the recently tested American technique being one of them.The TMC claimed that they were trying to do their best to sort out the situation but claimed the heavy rains and the massive traffic flow was proving to be a hindrance for the repairs to sustain. “We have tried several road repair techniques, but most have failed to sustain due to the rains and heavy traffic moving over them,” claimed a senior official from the public works department.Standing committee chairman and Shiv Sena corporator Ram Repale directed the TMC to submit their findings in the next meeting.

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