Vigilance collects Airport Road samples, records

Akash Ghai

Tribune News Service

Mohali, September 20 

After collecting fresh samples from various spots on Airport Road, a Punjab Vigilance Bureau team took documents related to the road from the GMADA office here. 

Sources said all documents related to Airport Road, including its DNIT, tenders, drawings/designs, approvals, details of contractors/companies and material had been handed over to the Vigilance team, which turned up again today to collect more samples from the road. 

Confirming the development, GMADA Chief Administrator Ravi Bhagat said the Vigilance team had sought all documents related to the road, which had been handed over to it. 

A Vigilance probe is already under way to detect corruption in the construction of Airport Road, on which a whopping Rs 169 crore was spent. 

The road, which came up around two years ago, is in a pathetic condition. The GMADA authorities had to close the newly constructed 6-km stretch from Airport Chowk to the Banur-Landran road T-point on Monday due to its wrecked condition and fatal accidents at a particular spot on it. 

A joint team of the Vigilance, Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi, GMADA and the PWD had inspected the road and collected samples from various spots yesterday after the issue was highlighted in these columns. Vigilance officials have pointed out large-scale irregularities in the construction of the road. The GMADA authorities, who believe the stretch is beyond repairs, said they had no choice but to close the road. GMADA engineers said the stretch had been founded on "black cotton soil", on which no road could survive. They claimed that the design and material specifications had been ignored during the construction of the road, indicating embezzlement of funds in the process.