Pune: Escalating bitumen costs have triggered a severe hot-mix shortage in Pune amid surging global crude oil prices driven by geopolitical tensions. The supply crunch has crippled the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC)’s Yerawada plant and was adversely impacting pothole restoration.Civic officials said the PMC sources asphalt from Mumbai. However, due to a shortage, the civic body has been forced to order tar from Kochi, around 1,200 km away. The cost of transportation would likely be a financial burden for the PMC, since it would cost a staggering Rs40,000 for just one truck of asphalt to come from Kochi to Pune. It costs only Rs7,000 to Rs8,000 per truck for a truck of asphalt from the state capital.The demand for bitumen was expected to be high for the civic areas in the days to come, with PMC poised to lay around 135-km-long roads for an international cycling event, apart from completing regular road repairs and restoration.Activists said the civic administration needed to plan better and should increase its infrastructure as well as storage of raw material for road repairs.It would cost the PMC road department Rs75 crore to repair roads and fix potholes and three separate tenders worth Rs25 crore each have been issued for the purpose.A few months ago, the PMC had decentralised road repairs, making ward offices responsible for works in their jurisdiction. PMC had allocated Rs3.5 crore to each of the 15 ward offices. However, some ward offices did not float any tenders and that of certain regional offices remained incomplete. Resultantly, road repairs were stalled. Now, the central road department would take sole responsibility for the repairs again and has issued tenders accordingly.Vivek Velankar of citizens group Sajag Nagrik Manch said the administration should declare the status of roads constructed recently and also after the rains. It would verily expose the inferior quality of works. “The administration is trying to hide behind reasons like war and shortage of oil products, but the basic problem is its system. Poor road works happen even when tar is available,” he said.Head of PMC’s road department Rajesh Bankar said, “The civic administration is making efforts to resolve the issue. The department has proposed two new plants to increase the capacity of hot-mix units for PMC areas. It will help deal with the requirements for road repairs.”Bankar said that even though the transport cost was high, PMC had sought a concession from suppliers in Kochi. “It will help reduce the extra expenses required for procurement,” he added.The Pune Grand Tour Cycle competition will be held in the city and roads with a total length of 135km would be developed across four phases. The span of new roads was likely to be 83km, while existing roads were 52km long. The estimates committee had approved the preliminary budget breakdown of Rs168 crore for the roadworks and tenders would be floated soon. The work was scheduled to commence in Aug. Along with improving the roads, this time emphasis would be placed on providing dedicated lanes, signals, streetlights and good pavements.PMC officials said the works would not be a pressure for the road department, since a private contractor would execute it and make their own arrangements for tar. As part of PMC’s annual budget for roads, Rs1,800 crore had been set aside and would be spent to improve existing networks and building new stretches, including the length of 65 km of new roads.
