Portal to monitor road cutting nods | Lucknow News

Lucknow: To eliminate possibilities of confusion and delay during the repair of roads, a centralised portal is being set up by the urban development department.To be called ‘Sugam’, the portal will help grant permissions and approvals to various govt departments and private agencies undertaking road cutting works within the urban limits. Municipal corporations and urban local bodies that maintain the road network within urban areas will issue the necessary permissions and also the charges for cutting the road.Senior govt officials said that the concerned agency would have to specify the reason for carrying out the work and its importance for the public. Along with the time period required to finish the work and the timeline of the repair works, photographs depicting the existing condition would have to be provided. The approval will be made available after a certain time period, and the agency will have to give an undertaking to restore the road stretch and provide fresh photographs, which will be verified.“On coming across anomalies, we will take stern action and stop issuing permission to such agencies in the future,” said an officer. As multiple agencies are responsible for maintaining roads, closer coordination is required between multiple govt agencies. While the public works department owns the majority of the road network and takes up civil works periodically, the water works department, power department, piped gas providers, telecom, and utility companies often carry out road works. Officials said the portal would alert other govt departments as well about the repair works. The onus will be on local municipal corporation to provide better roads to urban population.