Slow pace of road construction work irks industrialists

Harshraj Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, December 15

The construction of Sua Road, heading from Peepal Chowk to Delhi Road at Gobindgarh in Ward No. 28, is still incomplete even after one year from the start of the project. People commuting on the stretch are facing a lot of inconveniences as the stretch lies broken. Industrialists of the area have alleged that the road construction work is going on at slow pace.

After a meeting with the contractor and industrialists last month, Municipal Corporation (MC) officials had then claimed that the former was directed to complete the pending work. Meanwhile, industrialists alleged that the road construction work was being delayed once again. They demanded that the MC authorities should get the work completed at the earliest.

VS Gill, member, the Sua Road Industrialists’ Association, said the contractor had deployed men just for a few days after industrialists raised the matter before the MC last month. A portion of the road was dug up 10 days ago, he said. Later, the road construction work was stopped again, leaving the public to face inconvenience, he added.

Ready mix concrete (RMC) work on Sua Road was started in December 2020 and the contractor concerned was supposed to complete the project (estimated cost of Rs3 crore) within six months. Earlier, industrialists had raised questions over ‘poor’ road construction work in March 2021. Later, the project was stalled by the contractor without completion. In November, MC’s additional commissioner had visited the project site and instructed officials concerned to do the needful to get the road project completed.

A member of the industrialists association said they were assured that the road work would be completed soon, but to no avail. Industrialists were facing financial losses as the road work had not been completed even after one year, he added.

Meanwhile, executive engineer Surinder Singh said the road construction work was underway. The contractor had been asked to complete the road work by December 31, he added.