Gurugram, March 13 -- The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has begun recarpeting six pothole-prone road stretches across the city instead of repairing individual potholes that were flagged during a drive launched last month, officials said on Thursday. According to officials, the identified stretches include Sector 18; the 15-metre and 18-metre roads in Sector 23A; internal roads in Sector 39; pockets B, C and D in Sector 21; and Sectors 51 and 46. According to data by MCG officials, the corporation has allocated around Rs.8.9 crore for the repair work. Notably, this comes weeks after the MCG launched a 10-day drive on February 19 to repair 5,000 potholes across the city, promising to prioritise complaints received through civic grievance portals. However, soon after announcing the initiative, the civic body changed its plan and decided to recarpet the six stretches instead. When asked about the change in the plan, Vijay Dhaka, chief engineer at MCG, said that the civic body decided to repair entire road stretches instead of fixing individual potholes to ensure more durable results. "Instead of repairing specific potholes, we started taking up complete stretches so that the work is not repeated and the roads remain in better condition for a longer period," he said. Meanwhile, senior MCG officials said that although the work could not be completed within the initial 10-day timeline, the repairs are underway and residents will see visible improvement in the next 15-20 days. In Sector 18, around 2.7km of road has been slated for recarpeting. Of this, nearly 1.3km has already been completed, while the remaining stretch is expected to be finished by March 15, officials said. In Sector 23A, a total of 9.8km of roads have been identified for recarpeting. So far, about 7km has been completed, and the remaining portion is scheduled to be recarpeted by March 20, they added. In Sector 39, officials said that out of the 10.2km road stretch identified for recarpeting, only 2.4km has been completed so far. The civic body has set a deadline of April 30 to complete the remaining work. For Sector 21, the total length of road to be recarpeted was not specified. However, officials said tile work is currently in progress, and bituminous work will begin once the tiling is completed. The deadline for finishing the work has been set as May 28. Officials added that carpeting work in Sector 51 has been completed. However, carpeting work in Sector 46 has not yet begun. According to the latest update shared by officials, the project is currently marked as "in progress", with a proposed completion date of April 15. Additional commissioner at MCG, Ankita Chaudhary, said the plan was revised after feedback from the engineering department. "While we initially launched a drive to fix 5,000 potholes, the engineering department later gave us the feedback that repairing potholes individually would lead to a wastage of funds, as several roads require a complete overhaul. Based on this feedback, we decided to identify specific stretches and take up carpeting work there," she said. Chaudhary added: "We have received several complaints through the Mhari Sadak app, the CM Window application, and the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) portal. While not all complaints relate to roads under the MCG's jurisdiction, we are prioritising locations where residents have reported large potholes and road craters." Earlier, HT reported on March 6 that residents have flagged the deteriorating condition of Sector 46 main and internal roads, which is making the daily commute challenging and risky. They shared that the roads have not been recarpeted for the past two years. When contacted, an MCG official said that carpeting work in Sector 46 has not yet begun. "At present, road cleaning is underway, and we will start work on the 18-metre roads in the coming weeks," the official said. Another official, requesting anonymity, said that while work has begun in some areas, several stretches are yet to be taken up and remain pending....