Army says no to AC bus stand at Bathinda

Varinder Singh

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, September 16

The Rs40 crore air-conditioned bus stand project on the Bathinda-Barnala road has virtually crash-landed with the Army authorities refusing to allow construction of any high-rise building that could pose a security threat to the Asia’s biggest cantonment.

Bathinda Improvement Trust Chairman Dyal Dass Sodhi had said that the construction of the AC bus stand would start soon as the vexed issue of obtaining an NOC from the Army had “got resolved”.

He said the trust authorities had prepared a six-storey building design earlier, which invited objections from the Army. After that, the trust “agreed” to build a four-storey building.

Sodhi also claimed that he had got an assurance from the Local Bodies authorities that the bus stand file would be cleared in a week.

On the other hand, the Army authorities have made it clear that they were not in a mood to issue any NOC to the Improvement Trust, Bathinda, for construction of the bus stand near the Bathinda cantonment. “The army authorities have not issued any NOC for the proposed AC bus stand,” said a senior Army officer.

The Army authorities had also conveyed it to the district administration that they could not accord any such sanction whether the proposed building had six or four storeys.