Under construction Bus Rapid Transport Scheme claims yet another life in city

AMRITSAR: The under-construction BRTS project has snuffed out yet another life in the city. Motorcycle-borne Pawan Kumar, a father of two minors, hit with an iron railing installed in the middle of the road in the cantonment area on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday.

A deep pit left unguarded as part of the BRTS outside Government Dental College Hostel in Amritsar on Thursday. PHOTO: RK SONI

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 26

The under-construction BRTS project has snuffed out yet another life in the city. Motorcycle-borne Pawan Kumar, a father of two minors, hit with an iron railing installed in the middle of the road in the cantonment area on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday.

Casual working of the BRTS project was highlighted from time to time but to no avail. This incident has once again brought to the fore the unplanned manner in which the work on the BRTS project is being carried out on city roads during peak traffic hours.

Earlier on May 21, an incident had occurred when the employees of a contractor were widening the Mall Road under the BRTS project. The top portion of a truck got entangled in the electricity wires, which uprooted three streetlight poles on the Mall Road. One of the poles fell on the motorcycle on which Rampartap Thakur, the deceased, was travelling. His son Karan Partap and wife Sarvesh had sustained head injuries.

After the incident, all the employees concerned fled away, leaving the vehicle behind. The police had taken the truck into their custody.

Besides, one Chandan Madan had also lost his life due to the haphazard civil works of the BRTS.

Shoddy civil work by the government is on display as gravel was found scattered on the road along the route of the BRTS and other infrastructure-development projects in the city.

These works, along with the BRTS project, which is under progress at certain roads, have turned the city into a nightmare for commuters.

Social worker Sanjeev Rampal, who had held a protest against non-pavement of service lane under the BRTS project on the Batala Road, said many accidents were taking place regularly due to shoddy work and gravel could be found scattered on roads even today. He said the authorities did not take any cognisance of the matter.

He said gravel could be easily spotted on Lawrence Road Chowk, SSSS Chownk, Batala Road, Crystal Chowk and many other stretches in the city.

He said already, considerable stretches of the Batala Road, GT Road, Queen’s Road and others were occupied for laying elevated roads and preparing dedicated stretches for the BRTS project.

When contacted, PWD B&R officials said since some material on the surface of the road had moisture content, it may have come off. They said some points on the roads had been left covered with gravel which would be brought under interlocking tiles to make space for parking.