Model Town road in poor state, commuters suffer

Avneet Kaur

Jalandhar, December 9

The road in the heart of the city near Darshan Singh Kaypee Chowk, Model Town, lies in a pitiable condition due to which commuters are facing inconvenience.

Though it is also one of the busiest roads in the town having a large number of commercial outlets and restaurants, a long stretch on either side of the roundabout has been broken.

People have to wade through potholes on the road, while elderly persons face a tough time in crossing the uneven surface scattered with stones.

It is the main road to Gol Market, Green Model Town locality and other residential colonies. Commuters and residents of the area said despite repeated complaints regarding the poor condition of the road, no concrete efforts had been made to deal with the issue.

Raj Nanda, whose shop is located on the road, said the patchwork was carried out a number of times to fill potholes and repair the broken stretch but it did not last even a month due to poor quality of work and lack of proper supervision.

“At many times, vehicles get stuck on the road. People have received injuries on some occasions due to the bad condition of the road. Only three days ago, a girl riding a two-wheeler got slipped after hitting with a stone on the road. When it rains, the water remains stranded on the road for a long time. Commuters have complained to the MC regarding the same many times, but to no avail,” he said.

Aarti, another commuter, while lashing out at the MC said people pay taxes but the government had failed to provide safe roads.

“The government has been taking development tax and on the name of development, we could only see poor roads, defunct streetlights and stray animal menace. If the government is not carrying out proper development work in the state, it has no right to collect tax from us. Moreover, the maintenance of the road should be the priority of the local civic body,” she said.

She said it had been observed that at various places, one road had been laid twice or thrice, but the road which actually require attention or immediate repair were being ignored. The public money was being wasted, she added.

MC XEN Rahul Dhawan said a tender to repair the road had been floated. Official formalities were going on and the work to relay the road would begin soon.