Unending 'development' works
THE picture carried in the front page of the paper depicting a road with a good part of it dug up for development work of several agencies is fairly representative of many roads in the city. Not only do these create impediment to movement of people and traffic, the way some of the worksites are left unattended and unmarked, is also a recipe for accidents, particularly at night.
What is irksome is that there is lack of urgency in completing the work and almost all these see time overrun invariably. And all seem to run into the rainy season, compounding everyone's problem. Why can't the planning be done during the rainy season and the dry season, albeit short, be used for the actual work? And we wonder why such laxity on the part of the contractors and even more lethargy on the tasking agencies like Wasa, BTCL and the city corporations to complete the task.
While one must appreciate the fact that the different utility agencies are now coordinating their work unlike in the recent past when each would dig up the same spot at different times, we think the current state has been brought about by perhaps there being not one single lead agency to ensure that the work is completed in all respect within the fixed time.
Going beyond the time stipulated for completion of the repair and development works by months is absolutely unacceptable. The city corporations, being the main service provider, should wield the stick to ensure their timely completion.
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