18 months on, Haryana Roadways workshop yet to come up in P’kula

Sanjay Bumbroo

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, March 18 

The construction of Haryana Roadways workshop in Phase II, Industrial Area, hangs fire even after one and a half years as only five per cent work has been completed by the contractor till now. 

The Public Works Department (PWD) had allotted tenders to a private contractor for the construction of the government bus workshop about eighteen months ago. Till now, only the boundary wall has been constructed. Besides, some pillars of the building can be seen at the site. As no construction work is going on, people have also started dumping garbage at the project site. 

The delay in completion of the workshop is also causing problems for the commuters in Panchkula as old buses, which require regular maintenance, are being run by the administration in the tricity. Buses plying on the Morni roads develop technical snags almost every day. Besides, there are not enough buses, which ply on long routes from the city. 

As per the information, the workshop for which the Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) has provided two acres will have the capacity to repair about 60 buses at a time. After the completion of the project more and more buses will depart from the local bus terminal in Sector 5 for various long-route destinations.

It is pertinent to mention here that city residents have demanded shifting of the Haryana Roadways workshop from the Industrial Area. They had even written to officials concerned, besides the Haryana Chief Minister, but no action has been taken on their appeal. 

Residents have argued that if the workshop is constructed in the Industrial Area there will be frequent traffic jams on the road from Phase II to Harmilap Nagar, a neighbouring village in Punjab, as there is only 18-feet road in front of the workshop. 

“As there is only one entry gate it is impossible for two buses coming from the opposite directions to enter or exit the road in front of the workshop, which is quite narrow,” said SK Nayyar, member of the Citizens Welfare Association, Panchkula.

“Recently, we have pulled up the contractor to speed up work on the project. If the contractor fails to complete the project within the stipulated time then he can be blacklisted,” said Vishal Seth, technical advisor to the Haryana Government.