A Residents’ Welfare Association (RWA) in Mysuru has persuaded the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) to lay utility ducts underneath before asphalting a road so that the freshly tarred carriageway is not dug up repeatedly for water, Underground Drainage (UGD) and other utility connections to new houses.
After MUDA took up work on widening and reconstructing the 80 feet road running for nearly a kilometre between B and C Block in Vijaynagar 3 rd Stage in Mysuru, the local RWA feared that the road would invariably be dug up to lay utilities in the coming days as construction was yet to be taken up on 52 plots.
They approached the local MLA G.T. Deve Gowda as well as MUDA officials with a proposal to lay the required underground pipelines for water, UGD and other utility connections, like electricity, telephone and even broadband, before laying the bitumen surface of the road.
Responding positively to the suggestion, MUDA created ducts across the road and laid pipelines for various utilities — water, UGD and even broadband connections — before taking up asphalting of the road.
Superintending Engineer, MUDA, Channakeshava told The Hindu that they have created utility ducts in front of vacant sites so that the owners need not dig up the road in future for obtaining utility connections. “There will be one utility duct in front of two or three vacant sites,” he said.
Legal Advisor of Vijaynagar 3 rd Stage RWA Mandetira N. Subramani said the MUDA accepted the association’s suggestion and has begun laying concrete pipes with a diametre of about one-and-a-half feet (18 inches) for drawing water, UGD, electricity, telephone or broadband cables before asphalting the road. “In future, owners of vacant sites need not dig up the road for any purpose,” he said.
Mr. Subramani, a retired non-commissioned officer of the Indian Air Force and also president of Mysuru-based VeKare Ex-servicemen’s Trust (VKET) which takes up the causes of ex-servicemen and their widows, said his suggestion to lay utility ducts before asphalting a road should serve as a precedent for the MUDA to be followed in all its residential layouts.
He advised all residents of Mysuru to be vigilant about the quality of construction of roads in their layouts and make suggestions or complaints to the authorities concerned if they find any shortcoming in construction of the road, which is paid from taxpayers’ money.
The office-bearers of association led by its president Ravikumar have expressed their gratitude to Mr G.T. Deve Gowda and MUDA Commissioner Dinesh Kumar for responding to their suggestion and implementing the same.
