New Year, new-look roads even for Jamshedpur’s less-than-trendy pincodes. That seems to be the agenda of Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee (JNAC), which is taking up an ambitious Rs 2.5-crore road construction programme for its command areas. The tender for 25 roads — most of which are pre-stressed cement concrete (PCC) ones — will be floated next week. Work is expected to begin in November and will end by the beginning of 2012. Speaking to The Telegraph, JNAC special officer Rabindra Nath Dwivedi said the city’s main roads were maintained by Tata Steel subsidiary Jusco, while the civic body looks after the upkeep of alleys and internal road network in non-Tata Steel command areas. “Our road revamp project got delayed due to rains. We’ll begin it in right earnest before Diwali,” he said. The festival of lights is scheduled to be on October 26 this year. The officer said the tender process would be finalised in a fortnight. “We are committed about completing our target by this fiscal,” he claimed. The type of roads has been decided after a survey of the needs across localities. “Roads will be mostly built in Bagunhatu, Shastrinagar, Birsanagar, Kashidih, Sitaramdera, Slag Road, Bagun Nagar, Deonagar, Baridih, Bhuiyandih, Bhatia Basti, Uliyan, Golmuri, Tuiladungri, Garabasa and East Plant Basti areas,” JNAC engineer G.K. Bhagat said, adding that the initiative would ease commuting woes in roads criss-crossing various shanties and slums located in the city. Bhagat said that 80 per cent of the 25 roads to be constructed would be of PCC type. The rest will be either paver block laid types or black top with bitumen layers. JNAC officials also said blatant water tapping — digging roads to reach Tata Steel water supply lines below — was one of the main reasons for including paver blocks to construct roads in slums and shanties, as well as other non-Tata Steel areas. “Such damage to roads are controlled to a great extent by putting precast cement blocks. They can be removed while repair work is on, unlike in the case of PCC roads, where small chips and cracks start widening when people try and hook water from pipes underneath,” he said. Roadways, a central component of the state’s infrastructure network, have been largely neglected in Jamshedpur’s non-Tata Steel areas where their upkeep is the domain of JNAC, Mango Notified Area Committee and Jugsalai Municipality.