Dholewal Bridge side opened to traffic

Shivani Bhakoo

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 23

The other side of the Dholewal-Pratap Chowk flyover, which had been closed for the past about 25 days for maintenance of expansion points, was opened to the public late last night. Commuters heaved a sigh of relief as the MC was able to finish the repairs within the stipulated time.

During the maintenance period, the residents had to take a detour to reach to their respective destinations. The traffic coming from Samrala Chowk was diverted towards RK Road or the area opposite Cancer Hospital, which are very busy roads.

Jatinder Khurana, an advocate, said it was certainly appreciable that this time, the MC had fulfilled its promise of completing the repairs withing the stipulated time.

“Earlier, while repairing the other side of the bridge, it took the MC staff more than 40 days to complete the maintenance work. We can certainly bring improvement to the system if we start meeting the deadlines,” said Khurana.

Earlier, one side of the bridge was closed for maintenance in November-end last year.

Municipal Commissioner GK Singh said the bridge was opened to the public last night. He said: “As it had taken more time to repair the other side, we warned the contractor that in case of delay, he would be liable to pay a fine of Rs 50,000 per day. He had asked for about 25-30 days for accomplishing the repairs and he did it within the stipulated time. We are happy that the public will be greatly relieved now,” he said.

It was important for the MC to open the bridge on time as a diversion plan has to be chalked out for a nagar kirtan to be organised to welcome Guru Sahib’s belongings to the city on June 6.