Citizen’s Audit of Public Roads

in Corporation of Madurai

A citizen’s effort to understand and solve the issues in public roads.

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1. Introduction

Arappor Iyakkam is a citizens organization that works towards Transparency and Accountability in Governance.

Quality roads are fundamental to a city’s infrastructure. Lack of good roads results in accidents leading to loss of life or disability. It also creates severe stress on the health of the residents. There have been several complaints of poor roads in Madurai over the last few years and this led us to do a detailed citizen audit of the roads that are under the limit of Madurai Corporation.

Arappor Iyakkam called for citizens and volunteers to document poor roads in their areas. Around 20 volunteers participated in this study and documented nearly 100 poor roads of Madurai that required immediate attention of Corporation of Madurai. We hope that the Tamil Nadu Government and Corporation of Madurai take serious note of the study and take efforts to relay the poor roads immediately.

2. Section I: Road Audit

2.1 Methodology

Arappor Volunteers and citizens in Madurai were provided with a Google form to record the audit data. In this audit form, volunteers identified roads that are in poor condition in their neighbourhood and documented the name of the damaged road with the Ward Number, Zone Number and images of damaged roads from the field. The audit was done between March to May 2023.

Google Road Audit Form Link: https://arappor.org/MaduraiRoadAudit

Refer to Annexure – I: Madurai Road Audit Google Form, Annexure – II: Audit Form Response sample images.

Limitation: This is not a study of all poor roads of Madurai. Volunteers identified poor quality roads in their neighbourhood that affects them directly in their everyday travel. The actual number of poor quality roads will be much more.

2.2 Road Audit Consolidation Data

2.2.1 Zone 1 – EAST

The following roads were audited by the volunteers and were found to be in poor condition.

Download the PDF Report for Full List of Roads

Key Observations in Zone 1:

1. All the 29 audited road need immediate relaying.
2. Underground sewage work has been completed before a minimum of 6 months in most of the roads mentioned above but new roads have not been laid after the work.
3. Sewage and water works have been happening for more than 10 months in Ward 36, Gomathipuram.

2.2.2 Zone 2 – NORTH

The following roads were audited by the volunteers and were found to be in poor condition.

Download the PDF Report for Full List of Roads

Key Observations in Zone 2:

1. 1. All the 28 audited road need immediate relaying.
   2. 1/3rd of the roads namely Pallivaasal 2nd street, Hanuman Koil Street, Periyasamy Konar Street, Balamurugan Koil 2nd East Cross Street, Muthumariamman Koil Street, Kamarajar Street, Sellur Kulamangalam Main Road and Paalam Station Road Sellur, Annanagar Main Road, Vellankanni Church Road and Anna Nagar towards Uzhavar Sandhai have not been laid for about 15 years and in bad condition
   3. Another 1/3rd of the roads namely Puthuvayal Street, Puthuvayal 1st Street, Puthuvayal Abdul Kalam 1st Street, Puthuvayal Balamurugan Koil Street, Balamurugan Koil backside, Balamurugan Koil 1st cross street, Muthumariamman Koil backside, Pillaiyar Koil Street, Annanagar (near Fuscos) and Nehru 2nd Street do not have bitumen surfaces itself and are in dire need of roads
   4. The remaining 1/3rd of the roads namely Ilango Adigal Street of Sadasivam Road, Kumaran Street of Anna Nagar, Mannar Thirumalai Road of Anna Nagar, Yagappa Nagar Main Road of Anna Nagar, Kallathu Pottal Road and Anna Main Road, Pothaniya Puram are fully damaged and need relaying

2.2.3 Zone 3 – CENTRAL

The following roads were audited by the volunteers and were found to be in poor condition.

Download the PDF Report for Full List of Roads

Key Observations in Zone 3:

1. All the 13 audited road need immediate relaying.
2. Rajam Nagar Towerline Road and Ponmeni Main Road consist of school zones and bad road conditions are dangerous to the school children and commuters.
3. Due to Theni flyover construction, vehicular traffic has been diverted to Ponmeni Main road, where traffic congestion is a key problem today, with already bad roads.
4. Kalavasal Bypass Service road and streets around Koodal Alagar Perumal Koil are in very poor condition, and this have to be addressed immediately.

2.2.4 Zone 4 – SOUTH

The following roads were audited by the volunteers and were found to be in poor condition.

Download the PDF Report for Full List of Roads

Key Observations in Zone 4:

1. All the 8 audited road need immediate relaying.
2. Mela Anupanadi TNHB Main Road residential area was constructed over a canal due to which the road is flooding during rains. Roads are in bad conditions and are more dangerous during the rainy season.
3. Most of the roads in this zone do not seem to have been laid in the recent years and the residents have expressed great disappointment.

2.2.5 Zone 5 – WEST

The following roads were audited by the volunteers and were found to be in poor condition.

Download the PDF Report for Full List of Roads

Key Observations in Zone 5:

1. All the 14 audited road need immediate relaying.
2. Vilanandapuram Road of Avaniyapuram, and Santosh Nagar of Avaniyapuram are in very poor condition that during rainy season, sewage water and rain water flood the streets, causing hygiene issues apart from danger and inconvenience.
3. Road was laid twice in 3 years in Avaniyapuram to Muthupatti Joint road however the quality both the times was so poor that the road is in very bad shape even today.
4. Encroachment on Jaihindpuram Main road needs to be regulated and roads relaid.

 

3. Section II: Raising of Road Height in Tender Specifications

One of the crucial aspects of road laying is to ensure that the road height does not increase. Increase in road height results in houses going beneath the road and thereby affecting them during rains and floods. It also results in the failure of stormwater drains which are designed as per existing road heights. The Chief secretary came up with an order dated 12/05/2021 that the road height should not be increased while relaying roads (Annexure – III: Chief Secretary Letter Regarding Road Height Increase).

However to our shock, we have found that the height of a few roads are increased in Madurai Corporation even at the stage of Tender specification itself, let alone the time of execution.

For example, let us look at the tender below floated by Madurai Corporation in January 2023.

Tender ID: 2023_MAWS_280358_1

Tender Description: Providing of BT Road Surface in Naganakulam Main Road in ward 13

Tender Documents Link :

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nFm13EUg2bdxfqjJYB9GBi96gLl_S2Pg/view?usp=sharing

 

To understand the work specification in this tender clearly, the various types of work are listed here with quantity in the below table.( Annexure – IV:  Tender BOQ Document – 2023_MAWS_280358_1)

While the earth work excavation or milling is for 1.32 cm depth as per tender specification, the laying of the road has wet mix macadam for 0.73 cm, Bituminous macadam for 5 cm and Bituminous concrete for 3 cm. Therefore, a total height of 8.73 cm is to be laid while only 1.32 cm is to be excavated. This results in increased road height of 7.41 cm as per tender specification itself. This is in gross violation of the Chief Secretary’s order.

Madurai Corporation must ensure that there is no increase in road height both in specification as well as execution.

4. Section III: Lack of Transparency in Tenders

As part of the public road audit, Arappor Iyakkam studied the tenders floated in the Madurai City Municipal Corporation. For this analysis, Arappor Iyakkam consolidated 23 road tenders data on 26/05/2023 floated in the period of 1 year from May 2022 to April 2023. (Annexure – V: Madurai Road Tenders May 2022 – Apr 2023)

While all these tenders have been completed and awarded for work and in many execution is already over, the tender website https://tntenders.gov.in/ shows that many of these tenders are not even opened.

Out of these 181 tenders, 48 tenders are displayed as ‘Technical Evaluation’ stage or ‘Financial’ bid stage, 67 tenders are displayed as ‘Cancelled’ and 1 tender displayed as ‘Financial Evaluation’ however the rest of the tenders are not updated at all in the website. It appears that the data is purposefully hidden by moving to a manual process of finalization of the tenders from the stage of opening to hide the details of bidders and the finalized amount and specification of contract work.

Arappor Iyakkam demands implementation of end-to-end tender process and for requesting full transparency in the tender process, as per the announcement for end-to-end e-tender announced in the Budget session in April 2023.

5. Recommendations

With respect to the issues identified and analyzed, we request the Madurai Corporation to implement the following recommendations as soon as possible.

1. As per the above data, we request the Madurai Corporation to immediately carry out the relaying and patch work in all of the above roads mentioned.

As per the above table, we request the Corporation to immediately carry out the relaying and patch work in all of the above roads mentioned.

2. 1. Our study is only on a sample of the roads. Madurai Corporation needs to carry out an extensive audit and prepare and release a blue print of their plan to relay each of the damaged roads within a definite time period.

    

   2. Some roads for which tenders were already floated shows that there is an increase in the height of the road at the stage of tender specification itself, violating the Chief Secretary’s order. Madurai Corporation needs to immediately correct the tender specifications and they should ensure that both as per tender specification and execution, the road heights in Madurai are not increased.

    

   3. Lack of Transparency has been a major concern in Madurai Most tenders even though called as ‘e-tenders’ are carried out as manual tenders from the stage of opening to avoid public view of the bidders who participated and the amount for which contracts are awarded. As a result, even the tenders for which work has been completed are displayed as ‘to be opened’ tenders. Transparency is key to counter maladministration, Corruption etc and to fix accountability. Therefore, Madurai Corporation should display transparency in letter and spirit.

    

   4. While the Madurai Corporation grievance redressal option is available in website through http://mducorpicts.com , a mobile app similar to the Namma Chennai app will make grievance redressal more accessible to a larger number of citizens to raise their grievances. Also, request you to create more awareness about such mechanisms with the public to make Madurai city a better place.

6. Annexure

Download the Full Report PDF