In a surprising turn of events, villagers from Karjat and Hast Pokhri in Maharashtra’s Jalna district performed a seemingly supernatural act by lifting a road with their bare hands. His remarkable feat was not a display of extraordinary strength, but a testament to the ridiculously poor quality of the road he was facing. A video of villagers using a thin layer of cloth cloth beneath the concrete to lift the road has now gone viral on social media after being shared multiple times on various platforms.
The villagers claimed that the road was initially being constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) before the contractor abandoned the project. Initially hailed as the first road in the district to be built with advanced German technology, it was later found to be shoddy by the authorities, Lokmat reported.
“Look at this, look at this layer. All fake work is going on,” the resident says in Marathi in the 38-second-long video. All this fake work is being done in the name of development.
Residents can also be heard blaming Jalna-based contractor Rana Thakur for the poor condition of the road.
When Kaleen Bhaiya ventures into Road construction 😂😂 The contractor made a fake road— with carpet as a base! #Maharashtra #India #Wednesdayvibe pic.twitter.com/6MpHaL5V6x
— Rohit Sharma 🇺🇸🇮🇳 (@DcWalaDesi) May 31, 2023
Videos showing the pathetic condition of the road have sparked widespread public outrage. Many people have even created memes ridiculing the so-called “carpet road” situation.
“This is how middle class hard earned money is spent in developing world class roads and other infrastructure across India,” wrote a Twitter user.
“Contractors must be sure that their work is being watched by so many people. Unlike earlier situations, people are very cautious,” added another.
However, some users were quick to point out that a carpet-like fabric could be a waterproof geotextile fabric under the concrete.
“I think they removed the waterproofing layer,” said one user.
Geotextile fabrics have emerged as a valuable construction material, finding application in various projects such as roads, drainage systems and retaining walls. Fabrics are used to separate, reinforce, filter or aerate different layers of soil or aggregate, and help provide stability and prevent erosion. In standard practice, geotextile fabric is not placed directly under the top layer of concrete. Instead, it is applied over soil and subgraded and then covered with a coarse or subbase layer before layers of concrete are poured.