Just do it. Over a hundred students of DY Patil Pushplata Patil International School took up road repair - a key responsibility of the rural works department - in the Jaganpura locality in south Patna on Tuesday.

For three hours, at least 500 metres of the 1.5km rough road got tender touches under the supervision of schoolteachers, not government engineers. The teachers also took up the role of traffic police, as they guided commuters to drive slow on the stretch where the students were laying bricks for the road. The remaining portion, around 1km, of the road would be repaired in the next couple of days.

The idea of taking up such a project was floated by the students themselves who discussed first to do something meaningful for the society during the Christmas vacation and then presented the idea before principal Radhika K. "Around a week back, a group of students from classes VI to VIII came to me with this idea. After discussing it with school director C.B. Singh and colleagues, I gave permission for taking up this work. Parents too were taken into confidence as the work required hard work in such cold," she said.

Director Singh said: "The rural works department did not construct a part of the pavement. Students repaired it by filling the unconstructed portion so that the whole road can be on the same level."

Rural works department minister Shailesh Kumar said he was out of Patna and it would not be possible for him to comment anything without checking documents.

While principal Radhika was happy about her students, the young souls were picture of enthusiasm. While some of the students were seen carrying pieces of brick in buckets, some were busy putting a mixture of clay and stone powder over it as ballast. Another group of students was busy spraying water over it so that the material could settle well. "One feels good by doing something positive for the society," said class VII student Alice Sinha who was seen arranging bricks on the damaged road.

Ayush Kumar, also of Class VIII, said his parents were a bit sceptical to begin with when he sought their permission. "After some cajoling, they realised the importance of the initiative and permitted me to take part in this," added the boy of Kankerbagh. "One needs to set examples for sending a good message to the society."

Residents of Jaganpura were singing paeans for these school students as well. "What the government could not do in years, these students have done it in one day. We have decided to keep this road clean as a gesture of support for the students' initiative," said Rajesh Kanwar, who runs a grocery shop in the locality.

Director Singh, who is also the secretary of Patliputra Sahodaya, a group of CBSE schools, said he would put up this idea in the Patliputra Sahodaya meeting so that more schools could encourage its students to do some social work in the neighbourhood.