Rs 125 crore in kitty, MC to carry out road repairs first: Mayor

A day after the Centre approved diverting Rs 125 crores from the UT Administration to the Municipal Corporation, Mayor Harpreet Kaur Babla on Thursday stated that funds would be first utilised to improve the condition of roads.

She said she had directed officials to first start the works that were the most essentials, including repairing of roads and replacing damaged street lights.

Punjab Governor and UT Administrator Gulab Chand Kataria had handed over the Union government’s letter of approval to the Mayor on Wednesday. Due to the financial crunch, all development works in the city had been stopped. The MC failed to recarpet roads for years. It even did not have money to change non-functional street lights.

The Mayor said the MC would improve the condition of V4, V5 and V6 roads under its jurisdiction. The V3 roads had already been handed over to the Administration.

She said an internal survey was conducted to prioritise the work of recarpeting roads once the civic body got funds. The survey revealed that at least 60 roads were in “very poor” condition and required urgent recarpeting. Besides, the condition of 23 roads had been categorised as “poor” as these had not been recarpeted for over five years.

Babla said the road repair work would start soon after the monsoon season.

The MC is responsible for maintaining approximately 1,860 km length of roads, approximately 60% of the total road length in the UT.

Meanwhile, all BJP councillors today congratulated the Mayor on getting funds for the MC. They also submitted lists of pending works to be done in their respective wards.