The patchwork repairs carried out by the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Salt Lake roads have been washed away by just a few days of rain, leaving them uneven and riddled with craters.

In some places, the repairs were done barely a fortnight ago.

Residents of the township have to bear with these bad roads for now as no fresh tender to repair the roads can be called by the BMC before the Lok Sabha elections are over.

Roads across Salt Lake are riddled with craters and potholes as no thorough renovation or relaying of roads has been done in the past eight years. The civic body had so far banked on patchwork repairs — where a pothole is filled with bitumen.

Some of the roads where patchwork repairs had been carried out include the road that leads from the Sports Authority of India (SAI) complex, near the Salt Lake stadium, to the Eastern Drainage Canalside Road.

The stretch of First Cross Road from Banacharam’s sweet shop near Tank number 13 to the GD island on Broadway also got patchwork repairs.

Last Sunday (May 12), The Telegraph found that not only the patchwork repairs had vanished but the roads were riddled with craters. Fresh potholes had formed nearly on all of them.

The road that leads to the City Centre from Mayukh Bhavan had lost all its patchwork. Guardrails were placed around a deep crater in front of Mayukh Bhavan to prevent motorists from driving into it.

Roads and lanes inside several blocks including, AE, AD, BJ, BL and FD are crying for repairs as well.

Sources at the BMC’s road repairs department said it was “high time” that all the roads including those inside blocks were thoroughly repaired.

“We have been banking on patchwork repairs all for the past eight years. Now, there’s no road in the township that is devoid of craters and potholes,” the official said.

During patchwork repairs, a layer of bitumen is poured over the potholes to cover them. The new surface is higher than the road surface, creating undulations.

Contractors entrusted with patchwork repairs do not need to care about their
maintenance unlike in cases where a road is thoroughly repaired and a maintenance agreement is signed with the contractor.

Anita Mondal, the mayoral council member in charge of road repairs at the BMC, said that they had to carry out patchwork repairs because of a shortage of funds.

“We only had funds to carry out patchwork repairs,” Mondal said.