Guntur: The public engineering and health wings are racing against time to restored all important roads in Guntur city before the monsoon season begins in full swing.With Guntur Municipal Commissioner (GMC) Shrikesh B Lathkar setting end of July as the deadline for completion of road restoration works, the public health department, which is the nodal agency for the underground drainage (UGD) project, has decided to employ additional teams to execute works.UGD project contractor Shapoorji Pallonji sought time till August-end to finish the project. However, the commissioner shot down all such requests in view hundreds of public complaints. He directed that the main access roads should be completed on a priority basis and then the internal roads should be taken up.With the pre-monsoon showers exposing the city’s poor road infrastructure, the commissioner is firm on completing at least 30 per cent of the roads before the next round of rains.Sources said Shapoorji Pallonji had agreed to restore the roads that link from one colony to another colony on a war footing basis and take up the reconstruction of roads inside the colonies in the second phase. Officials said 5km of road works have to be taken up each day to meet the target and that it is a very daunting task. They believe construction of 2km of works can be taken up everyday in the current scenario.Interestingly, Shapoorji Pallonji could dig just 2.5km road per day (on an average) to lay the UGD pipelines in the last one year. “While digging the road in itself is a difficult task, re-construction is an even more challenging task,” said an engineer of the public health department.“It is true that it is a herculean task. However, we are going ahead with additional teams to reach the target set by the commissioner,” Shapoorji Pallonji project director Ramesh told TOI. He said they have prioritised the roads that have to be completed in the first phase and second phase.Shapoorji will reconstruct the asphalt concrete and CC roads that have been cut for UGD work.

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