Speed breakers wasted during repaving of Majitha road

Manmeet Singh Gill

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, June 2

The local administration's lack of planning and poor zeal for austerity becomes evident when it comes to undertaking development works in the city. While repaving the Majitha road, no efforts were made to remove the pre-fabricated plastic speed breakers installed only months ago.

A visit to the site revealed that most of these speed breakers have been entirely covered up with coal tar and gravel which was used to repave the stretch. The money spent on these speed breakers which were installed in hundreds in the entire city seems to have gone waste on the Majitha road as new speed breakers would have be installed now.

The pre–fabricated plastic speed breakers are fixed to the road with the help of bolts. The bolts are fixed to the road by drilling and then these pre-fabricated speed breakers are fixed.

These speed breakers were installed in the entire city by the Improvement Trust. The move to install plastic speed breakers had earlier been criticised by residents because of their camel-hump shape. The residents had stated that the ill-designed shape of the speed breakers was proving detrimental for vehicles as well as drivers especially those with back pain and spinal problems.

A resident of Majitha road, Jagdev Sharma, said, “The fact that no measures were taken to remove the speed breakers which could have been reinstalled once the road was paved shows the indifference of the authorities concerned towards wastage of public money.” He said the speed breakers were installed only six months ago and now again new ones would be purchased.

Another resident, Kewal Singh, said, “Employees of various government departments fail to get salaries on time because the treasury is often short of funds. The government should not allow wastage of public money like this, so that it can be used for purposes for which it is required.”