Engineers to be asset managers

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The Public Works Department would introduce a slew of modernisation measures and its engineers will now act also as managers of public property.

The decisions were taken at a meeting of 350 engineers of the department held here on Thursday in the presence of public works minister V.K. Ibrahim Kunju and PWD principal secretary P.H. Kurien.

A dedicated computer network would be developed to effectively monitor the works. It would also double as an assets register. The engineer concerned would have to enter the details of the works at least once every month so that the progress of each project is monitored at all levels.

PWD minister V.K. Ibrahim Kunju said the data entry work for the works register itself would take at least three months. “In six months, we will complete the computerisation of the register.”

The UDF government spent a record `1,500 crore on public works. The road infrastructure company Kerala (RICK) would start functioning from next week. It would undertake the task of converting 1,286 km of roads to international standards by spending `5,100 crore under the state road improvement programme (SRIP), he said.

When contacted, P.H. Kurien told DC that, through technological infusion, the department was hoping to bring more accountability among the engineers. “Engineers as managers is a trend across the world and we also want to move with the times,” he said.

Engineers from the level of assistant engineers to chief engineers attended the meet. The department that had taken back 8,700 km roads from local bodies would complete the maintenance works on them before April 30, ahead of the monsoon, Kurien said.