Poor infra: Chappar Chiri residents up in arms

Akash Ghai

Tribune News Service

Mohali, January 3

Residents of Chappar Chiri village, where Baba Banda Singh Bahadur War Memorial is located, are up in arms over pitiable condition of the village road, which leads to the historical site. The road, which connects Mohali town with the memorial site, is full of potholes.

“Driving vehicles on the road is challenging due to a number of pits, most of which are more than a foot deep,” said Zora Singh Bhullar, former sarpanch of the village.

He added that a number of visitors use to come to see the world’s tallest minaret, the war memorial and other historical spots in the area. “These visitors have been put into lot of inconvenience due to this bad-conditioned road. Those, who come on two-wheelers, are quite vulnerable here for obvious reasons, added Bhullar.

The residents of the village claimed that they have approached the authorities several times for re-carpeting of the road but all their requests have fallen on deaf ears. “We have the World’s tallest, 328 feet high, minaret. The government should provide top class facilities to attract more and more visitors but the area is deprived of basic infrastructure,” said the residents.

Even the work of constructing steps and installation of lift to reach atop the minaret is yet to be started.

It is to be noted that there is proposal of constructing a new road connecting airport road to Chappar Chhiri. The state government had also issued a notification in this regard in January 2014 following which notices of land acquisition were issued to some land owners in village Bariali, Chappar Chhiri Kalan and Chappar Chhiri Khurd. As some land owners had approached Punjab and Haryana High Court, the matter is still pending.