THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Public Works Department is shifting to a hired policy instead of buying equipment for tarring and other purposes. The plan is to avoid the bad reputation of destroying equipment, including road rollers and tar mixing plants, which were purchased at crores of rupees.

In most public works offices in the state, several equipment including rollers are in a state of disrepair due to bad care and inattention. A pothole machine bought at the Pattom Public Works Office ,for more than a quarter of a crore rupees in the Public works dept history is the latest victim. The company was shut down when the Public Works Department approached it for repairs of a pit-closing machine similar to a tipper lorry. Following this, the Public Works Department decided not to purchase such equipment for a large sum. The only way in front of the government is to auction off the pothole machine and raise money.

Depending on the construction, the shape and function of the equipment will change from year to year. The dept decided to hire or lease equipment to equipment contractors to avoid this additional liability, including annual maintenance of equipment and drivers' salaries and other benefits.

Construction equipment include motor grader, tarmixing plant, asphalt power, road roller machine, excavator wheel loader, truck crane and fork lift.

The Public Works Department has cancelled the process of purchasing equipment coating crores of rupees to avoid additional liability and losses. The decision was made to promote hired policy as per the decision of Public Works . Based on this, it was decided to rent out construction equipment, said Chief Engineer, Public Works Department