Alleged low quality Crown Road work

In a two-page report, the RA-TDC informed the community that the Crown Road work undertaken by the CPWD as per the designs of GB-ATDC has been substandard. It involved the destruction of 1,423 metres of a good road built by the Auroville Road Service in the years 2008-2012 with funds provided by the Government of India of about Rs 98 Lakhs; the supply and subsequent annulment of the first tender to build 2.1 km of the Crown with concrete paver blocks due to substandard quality of the blocks; and the revision of the tender to now use precast reinforced concrete slabs for the pavement with a concrete double U-shaped infrastructure channel next to it. The RA-TDC observed that the precast RCC slabs do not comply with any Indian standards and that the carbon emissions from the RCC precast slabs are 952% higher than for the road planned with paver blocks. It also stated that many precast slabs have been laid in a substandard manner, and the works are proceeding slowly.