Years on, roads at Industrial Growth Centre remain in bad condition

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, May 23

Commuters here are an inconvenienced lot as the condition of roads at the Industrial Growth Centre (IGC) has been very poor over the years, thanks to the apathetic attitude of the authorities concerned.

Road infrastructure at the industrial centre situated on Mansa Road has been in a dilapidated condition for the past many years. It poses a danger to the lives of commuters, including thousands of workers and industrialists who travel here on a daily basis.

According to sources, there are interior roads at IGC which have not been repaired for more than 10 years now and a majority of stretches are stripped off bitumen and concrete completely where only a layer of pebbles and dust can be seen spread on the surface of roads. The IGC houses more than 300 industrial units of transformers, steel product manufacturing, plastic making and soap manufacturing units where more than 4,500 workers are employed. Besides, hundreds of employees are working in Cargill, cattle feed manufacturing unit, Bharat Gas Ltd at the industrial area and Hindustan Insecticide Ltd.

Sources said the one kilometer-long stretch on ‘Bharat Gas’ road and another one and a half-kilometer stretch on Cargill Road are in utterly bad shape. As roads have worn off completely whenever a heavy vehicle passes through, these roads become invisible for the commuters following behind who are then forced to negotiate their way through the dense dust and potholed roads. More than 160-180 heavy trucks laden with gas cylinders (LPG) enter and leave from a mega Bharat gas plant at IGC on daily basis. With broken and potholed roads, the threat of these trucks getting imbalanced and overturned looms large.

An industrialist said that it seems authorities concerned are waiting for any untoward incident to transpire here before ensuring action to provide the most basic civic amenity. Although, the work to lay new sewerage line has been completed by authorities recently, the work to repair roads has still been lying pending.

Raman Lal, a worker in a shop making factory, said, “More than 60 per cent of the streetlights installed at IGC are lying defunct that has given rise to theft and snatching incidents during late night hours.”

Industrialists says whenever a complaint is registered with the Municipal Corporation, only a handful few lights are repaired and the situation comes back to square one in matter of weeks. A senior executive of Bharat Gas had shot off letters to the MC, Commissioner on numerous occasions regarding the poor condition of roads but nothing concrete has been done in the matter till now.

Mayor Balwant Rai Nath said, “We are planning to carry out the repair work of roads at industrial growth centre soon but it would be completed in phased manner depending upon the availability of funds.”