Car falls in pit dug up under BRTS

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 16

The state government’s ambitious Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS) has become a death trap for commuters. In a recent incident, a car fell in a pit dug up near old chungi in the Khandwala area.Though Prabhjot Singh and Mandeep Singh, who were in the car, escaped with minor injuries, the car suffered extensive damage.

According to eyewitnesses, the injured persons blamed the absence of streetlights as the cause of the accident because of which they could not see the huge pit.

Though it is uncertain when the construction of the dedicated corridors under the BRTS would be completed, the dug-up roads have made commuters vulnerable to accidents. Absence of streetlights coupled with the non-existing demarcations for guiding the traffic have further compounded the problem.

In a similar incident a day before, a car fell in a trench dug up by the contractors on the court road, though the commuters escaped unhurt. In January, a car had fallen in a pit near the Celebration Mall.

Aam Aadmi Party leader Gurbhej Singh alleged that the administration, the Public Works Department and the contractors involved in the project failed to take adequate measures to guide the traffic. The reflectors were missing from the points vulnerable to mishap and the reflecting tape pasted on the tin sheets fades with time. At several points, the service lanes which are mandatory to be provided during the construction work were never constructed.

In July last year, two heavily loaded trucks got stuck in the pits on the Jalandhar-Amritsar GT road, a portion of which was dug up to pave the way for constructing the BRTS corridor. The incident had led to a severe traffic jam.

While PWD executive engineer JS Sodhi could not be contacted, the district administration authorities said this was a serious issue and the contractors concerned would be pulled up and directed to fix the reflectors guiding the traffic so that no such incident occurred in future.