The state public works department (PWD) has been flooded with requests from ruling party MLAs to undertake repair on important roads in their constituencies, prompting the department to prepare a list of roads that need urgent repairs.

The department has so far shortlisted 242 roads that need urgent renovation based on MLA requests, but a senior official said that they were not sure how funds could be arranged.

PWD officials said that they would soon prepare a funds estimate and place it before the finance department. “It is important to note that these roads are over and above the roads undertaken for repair under the Pathasree Abhijan, under which 12,000km of roads would be repaired in next couple of weeks. It is now clear that a large number of the roads in the state are in bad shape,” said an official.

These requests from MLAs to the PWD hold significance, particularly ahead of the Bengal polls. Many in the department believe that this reveals that roads have been neglected in the state over the past few months, especially during lockdown.

The urgency to repair the roads by Trinamul MLAs clearly suggests that they think their fate in forthcoming polls is linked to an extent to the condition of roads in their respective constituencies.

The situation, sources said, is in sharp contrast with what the ruling party had faced in previous polls.

Though chief minister Mamata Banerjee renewed her thrust in repairing roads across the state through Pathasree, the requests from MLAs clearly hint that the state has to do more.

The Pathasree scheme stresses on repairing rural roads. But roads in semi-urban or urban areas are also in bad shape.

“The road sector was one of the areas which was the chief minister’s focus area from the very beginning. The Trinamul’s success in consecutive polls was associated with the general impression that roads had improved in Bengal after the change of guard in 2011. It now seems the roads were not maintained properly in the past few months,” said an official.

According to sources, Trinamul MLAs were under pressure from residents demanding repair of roads.

Sources in the PWD said that several MLAs sent lists of seven to 10 roads each for urgent repair work.

“We received requests to repair more than 600 roads. But we cannot take up repairs of so many roads at a go. That’s why we prepared a list of 242 roads,” said a PWD official.

A ruling party MLA from Birbhum, preferring to stay anonymous, said: “I was facing questions from people of urban areas as repair work on rural roads have started. I sent a list of seven roads in my constituency to the PWD for urgent repair work.”

A couple of district magistrates said they knew that the MLAs were knocking on the door of PWD for repair of some roads after DMs cited shortage of funds.