Official apathy takes its toll on Nagrota Surian-Guler road
Lalit Mohan
Tribune News Service
Dharamsala, December 2
The Nagrota Surian-Guler-Nandpur road in the Dehra Assembly constituency is in a state of utter neglect.
No repair work has been carried out in the last 10 years. The road is full of potholes and some stretches have turned ‘kutcha’.
Balbir Kumar, a local resident, said the condition of the road had not changed much in the last three decades, and rather turned from bad to worse.
Since the road fell in the Assembly constituencies of Dehra and Jawali, no one was ready to take the responsibility for its repair work. Despite repeated complaints to the authorities concerned, nothing had been done so far and local residents continue to suffer due to the official apathy, he added.
Another resident Rajesh Kumar said that the area connected by this road was inhabited by the Pong Dam oustees, who gave away their fertile land for the construction of the Pong Dam.
Sources said the road not been been repaired as the Pathankot-Jogindernagar narrow gauge railway line passed through some of its stretches. The Railways had not given permission to the PWD for constructing the road under its over-bridges. Besides, some portions of the road get inundated when the water level in the Pong Dam lake exceed in the monsoon. Till bridges were not constructed, the road could not have all-season connectivity, they added.
Sukrit Sagar, a local BJP leader, said that Rs 1.25 crore was sanctioned under a NABARD scheme for the construction of the road. However, the contractor could not complete it.
He said that NABARD had recently sanctioned funds for the construction of two bridges and the road would also be repaired soon.Ajay Sharma, Executive Engineer, PWD (Dehra), could not be contacted for his comment.
