Road near 22-number Phatak cries for care

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, June 29

The bumpy road near the city’s 22-number Phatak is causing trouble to commuters, especially two-wheelers, many of whom have skidded due to pebbles scattered all over the place.

Residents of the area also complain that the broken road turns into a virtual lake every monsoon resulting in inconvenience not only to commuters but also them as it becomes a breeding-ground for mosquitoes.

Avinash Kumar, an area resident, said, “The problem is not new. This bad patch has been the same for the past few years. As and when the road is repaired, it relapses into a bad condition soon due to accumulation of rainwater here. It is a low-lying area and water accumulates here.”

He said unless a storm sewerage line was laid, recarpeting the road would not solve the problem. The crossing is one of the busiest railway crossings in the city where long queues of vehicles are seen every time it is closed to pass a train. It is mostly used by commuters coming from the Jhabal side to enter the city. With no train running on this route since the Covid-induced lockdown, the crossing remains open all the time to vehicular traffic these days.

Residents say even as the road on both sides of the railway crossing is wide enough, traffic snarls can be seen here. The garbage thrown along the railway tracks is another problem being faced by the residents.

They say that fish sellers encroach upon the roadside area and dump leftovers by the roadside. “Dogs can be seen roaming here in search of leftover meat in the garbage. Stalls have come up on the roadside and the place gets converted into a virtual fish market as people, mostly booze lovers, swarm the place,” said another resident Sawinder Singh.

Apart from the bumpy ride near the railway crossing, commuters have to face the same problem near petrol pump as they move towards the Islamabad flyover. They say that due to restrictions on travel, traffic on the stretch is comparatively very less and the time could be used to improve the infrastructure and remove the bottlenecks so that when the normalcy returns, they do not have to face the same old issues.