Cuttack, Sept. 16: The municipal corporation today issued fresh direction to officials carrying out the Japan International Co-operation Agency (Jica) assisted integrated sanitation project to complete road restoration work by September-end before Dussehra.

At a co-ordination meeting held today, councillors cutting across party lines expressed their resentment over the poor conditions of city roads as it might create problems for people, especially during Duss-ehra next month.

The councillors vented their anger by blaming the Jica project officials for the inconvenience faced by residents owing to the digging up of roads for facilitating construction work under the mega project.

"The officials of Jica project are not taking into confidence local councillors before execution of construction work in their respective wards, while no step is being taken for the repair of roads after the construction activities for months together. We are not sure whether the Jica officials can be able to complete the restoration of the roads within the next 15 days since not a single road is now in motorable condition," said BJD councillor of ward No. 7 Ranjita Biswal.

The councillor of ward No. 33, Manoj Sethi, alleged that bulk of the drainage channels are either damaged following the construction activities or are clogged due to the release of slush.

"Despite repeated complaints, the Jica officials are not taking ample measures for desilting the drainage channels due to which most of the drains are overflowing in several wards," said Sethi.

"Earlier, the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) used to repair the drainage channels that were being damaged by the project undertaken by Jica. Today, we have proposed for the restoration of the drainage channels by Jica officials along with desilting work," said BJP councillor from ward No. 52 Hrusikesh Pradhan.

Municipal corporation commissioner Gyana Das told The Telegraph that the meeting was held to resolve the basic problems of co-ordination with the civic body and Jica officials.

"Apart from the timely restoration of the roads, we have also asked Jica officials to immediately stop further digging up of roads at new locations till the completion of Bali yatra in November," said Das.

Das further said the Jica officials have also been asked to submit a list of works to be taken up at new locations in subsequent phases for the next three months in advance.

The officials of the Jica project on the other hand admitted that there has been a delay in the execution of the road restoration work following the onset of monsoon.

"The ongoing measures for repairing the roads have been adversely affected in the last three months due to the rains. At present, 6km length of roads in various parts of Cuttack city are yet to be restored," said B.K. Mishra, an engineer associated with Jica.

Mishra informed that the work for laying sewer channels in 140km out of the proposed 256km is completed, while the remaining work is expected to be completed within a year.