Dispute over land: Transport ministry cuts width of ROB : The Tribune India

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Dispute over land: Transport ministry cuts width of ROB

FARIDKOT: The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) and PWD, Punjab, have decided to cut the width of the 300 m railway overbridge (ROB) from 11 m to 7 m due to the alleged encroachment on about 27 ft wide and 80 m long strip of the government land along a road in Faridkot town.

Dispute over land: Transport ministry cuts width of ROB

The partially built Faridkot-Talwandi Bhai railway overbridge. Tribune photo



Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, October 22

The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) and PWD, Punjab, have decided to cut the width of the 300 m railway overbridge (ROB) from 11 m to 7 m due to the alleged encroachment on about 27 ft wide and 80 m long strip of the government land along a road in Faridkot town.

For this alleged encroachment, the construction work of this railway overbridge project has been suspended for the past about one year as the PWD was not able to get this land vacated due to alleged political interference.

As per the original plan, a 925 m long and 11 m wide bridge at the top was to be constructed on the Faridkot-Talwandi Bhai road in the town at Rs 36 crore. The land under encroachment was also taken as part of construction in the drawings and planning of the project.

After the completion of more than 60 per cent of the bridge, the PWD faced problem in getting the possession of encroached land for the completion of the project.

Due to the dispute over the land and inordinate delay in the completion of this project, which was supposed to be completed by September this year, the MORTH threatened to withdraw itself from the project and asked the state government to complete it at its own cost.

Unable to settle the dispute over the property and get it vacated due to political interference, the PWD has now decided to cut the width of this 925 m long bridge from 11 to 7 m due to unavailability of the land.

As per the new drawings of this bridge, while about 600 m length of it will be 11 m wide, 300 meter of its length will be 7 m wide at the top.

Adesh Gupta, executive engineer, PWD, said, “The construction on the 300 m length of the bridge will be started in the coming days and we are hopeful of completing it soon.”

As the construction of the railway overbridge is hanging in balance, this partially build overbridge has multiplied commuters’ problems as the Faridkot-Talwandi road is in a bad shape because of the ongoing construction.

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