The 3.5km potholed stretch of Jemco road gets a smooth coat on Thursday. (Bhola Prasad)

Utilities company Jusco has started to repair the 3.5km nightmare stretch of Jemco Main Road in Jamshedpur from Wednesday afternoon, raising hopes that craters would disappear by July-end.

Auto major Tata Motors, whose raw material-laden heavy vehicles use this battered road to reach its plant, had requested Jusco to repair it.

On July 4, The Telegraph in its report “Jemco link used by industries a nightmare for drivers”, stressed how the road, a major industrial corridor connecting Tata Steel Tubes Division (Burmamines) with Lafarge Cement (Jojobera) and passing through Tata Motors, Telcon and the DVC substation, was riddled with watery potholes.

“Getting to know the road’s condition in The Telegraph report, we wrote to Jusco asking it to repair the stretch,” Tata Motors spokesperson Captain P.J. Singh said.

“Though it does not come under our jurisdiction, we agreed to repair it under the ambit of our corporate social responsibility as a large number of heavy vehicles crossing this stretch bring our consignments,” Singh added.

Some 10,000 heavy vehicles use the potholed stretch every day. It is also the sole link to Telco and Tatanagar for 40,000 residents of areas like Mahanand Basti, Jemco, Azad Basti, Laxminagar, Bajrangi Bagan, Jhagru Bagan, Prem Nagar, Manifit, Ramadin Bagan and Rahargora.

Jusco had last repaired the road in 2008 at a cost of Rs 13 crore at the request of Tata Motors. Back then, several industrial units had pooled in resources for Jusco to carry out the job.

Now, Jusco has outsourced the job to local private vendor Leading Construction. On the estimated cost, Jusco spokesperson Rajesh Rajan said they would share the figure later.

Currently, the double-laned road is being repaired in patches, using wet mix macadam for durability and fast drying. It is also being black-topped with bituminous layers. Traffic is open.

“All efforts are being made to complete the entire stretch by July-end,” said an employee of Leading Construction.

On the problem of unauthorised parking of heavy vehicles on both sides of the road, Tata Motors expressed its helplessness.

Prodded, traffic DSP R.M. Sinha said East Singhbhum district administration would soon start a drive against heavy vehicles parked illegally.