Chandigarh, May 21 -- With the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) planning to restart road recarpeting only in priority areas amid a prolonged financial crunch and a year-long suspension of roadworks, an internal assessment of the MC's road wing has found that nearly 225 kilometers of city roads are in "very poor" condition and need urgent repairs, which would cost around Rs.33 crore. The civic body, responsible for maintaining over 2,000 kilometers of roads, including V-3 (sector dividing road), V-4 (shopping street), V-5 (sector circulation road) and V-6 (access roads to houses), besides parking lots in various sectors, rehabilitation colonies, and villages, is facing a financial crunch. The road recarpeting work, usually carried out during March-April and October-November due to favourable weather conditions, has remained suspended since May 2024. Despite paperwork for major projects being completed months ago, the process of opening tenders was stalled due to the financial shortfall. However, municipal commissioner Amit Kumar in April this year had directed officials to conduct field inspections and prepare a priority list of roads that are riddled with potholes or are in a deteriorated condition. As per the internal report, the road repair backlog is spread across three divisions of the MC's road wing. In Division 1, around 45.25 kilometers of roads have been deemed to be in a very poor condition, including key internal roads in Sectors 34, 35, 42, 48, 49 and 56. Some of these stretches were last recarpeted nearly a decade ago in 2016. The estimated cost for recarpeting is Rs.5.9 crore. Division 2, which covers areas like Mauli Jagran, Vikas Nagar, Modern Housing Complex and Indira Colony, has the highest stretch of damaged roads at about 84 kilometers. Repairing these would require Rs.13.77 crore. In Division 3, nearly 95 kilometers of roads, mostly sector-dividing V3 roads, like those between Sectors 10 and 11, 15 and 24, 20 and 21, and 23 and 24, require work, with an estimated cost of Rs.14 crore. A senior MC official confirmed that the work will soon begin on roads which are in a very poor state. "The first quarter of the financial year usually brings some relief through property tax collections. These will be used to fund essential road repairs," the official said. He added that with no funds remaining from the UT administration's regular grant-in-aid, the MC will rely on its own tax collections to begin critical works....