Stone laying of bridge in BBN area runs into trouble

Tribune News Service

Solan, December 3

The proposed foundation stone laying of a bridge at Ratta Khad on the Morepen Road in the Baddi industrial area by the Chief Minister on December 5 has run into controversy with the former Doon MLA complaining that the foundation stones laid for this work during the Congress regime had been broken.

In a complaint with the SP Baddi, former Doon MLA Ram Kumar Chaudhary stated that the foundation stone for this bridge on the roads leading to Akanwali and Thana was laid on October 7, 2017 after receiving authorization from the then Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. It was laid through the Baddi Barotiwala Nalagarh Development Authority as these projects were being executed by the authority.

Chaudhary lamented that both the stones had been broken by some miscreants against whom an FIR should be registered. He also produced bills worth Rs 15,104 which was incurred for laying its foundation stone last year.

He said the BJP was trying to take credit for the development works undertaken earlier and questioned why the BJP had failed to initiate new development works in its nearly one year tenure.

This work was also awarded to Gurmeet Singh for a sum of Rs 75,61,928 in October 2017 but it was later cancelled on the plea that the site was not feasible for construction of 15-meter span RCC culverts. Both the sites require major bridges costing around Rs 6 crore. On the upstream side of the proposed site, one major bridge already stands constructed. Based on these observations the tender was cancelled in February 2018. The budget meant for this work was supposed to be utilized for other development works undertaken in this year as per documents available with The Tribune.

As per the new proposal, the PWD has been entrusted with the task of constructing this bridge though earlier the BBNDA was looking after its construction. SP Baddi, Rani Bindu, while confirming the receipt of a complaint from former Congress MLA, said the concerned agency BBNDA had been asked to verify whether such foundation stones were laid at the site as claimed by the former MLA.

Executive Engineer, PWD, Sanjeev Agnihotri, said a preliminary estimate costing Rs 1.35 crore had been worked out for this bridge for which Rs 95 lakh have been received from the BBNDA and its work will begin in the next few months after inviting consultancy to estimate its exact value.