Fix 'flaws' in market projects, Ludhiana West MLA tells civic body officials

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, March 24

Raising questions over alleged flaws in some Smart City Mission projects, newly elected AAP MLA from the Ludhiana West constituency Gurpreet Gogi on Thursday asked MC officials to take corrective measures.

Gogi on Thursday held a meeting with the MC officials at the MC’s Zone D office and reviewed ongoing and upcoming projects in the city. He inspected project sites at Malhar Road and Sarabha Nagar markets today.

He asked the officials to fix issues and ensure widening of Malhar Road. The traders had earlier blamed the civic body for reducing the width of the road under the Smart Street project.

He directed the officials to remove the fountain structure from the main Sarabha Nagar Market so that the vacated area could be used for parking of vehicles.

He said corrective steps would be taken to streamline unplanned projects introduced during the regime of the previous government.

‘Cancel advt contractwith private firm’

Gogi asked the officials to cancel the existing advertisement contract with a private firm. He said there was a need to end monopoly and bring transparency in advertisements project in the city. Thus, there was a need to allot advertisement contracts to multiple companies so that the MC could generate maximum revenue from advertisements, he said.

Notably, earlier also, Gogi had raised questions over the working of the current private advertisement firm during his election campaign.

Gogi has asked the officials to make sure all city buses ply on the road by Baisakhi next month. He said the buses should be run on all routes in the city so that the people could avail the benefit of the city bus service. Many of the city buses were not plying on roads. The MC has also failed to ensure that buses ply on various routes inside the city.

Vending zones

Gurpreet Gogi has given instructions to the Municipal Corporation to make sure setting up of vending zones for street vendors. He asked the officials to get the vendors shifted to identified vending zones in the city. Notably, a project to set up vending zones for street vendors is hanging fire for a long time. If vending zones are set up, vendors would not be forced to station their carts on roadsides.

Beautification plan

When the Smart City mission project was launched, a plan was made to beautify the Ghumar Mandi area but the project was ignored. Gogi, who is a councillor of Ward 76, said Ghumar Mandi and other areas of the ward were ignored during the tenure. He asked the officials to launch the project worth Rs 18 crore to beautify the Ghumar Mandi market.

Removal of garbage dumps

He asked the officials to ensure the removal of garbage dumps from the Scooter market and Jawahar Nagar camp. He also asked the officials to make sure checking of existing static compactors and set up new compactors at the earliest. A garbage dump near railway tracks at Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar has already been removed.

RUB opened for traffic movement

On Thursday afternoon, MLA Gurpreet Gogi, along with civic body officials, inspected the ongoing work at a rail underbridge from Pakhowal Road to Sarabha Nagar. Gogi said one side of the RUB had been opened for traffic movement on Thursday.

Run all city buses, says MLA

Gogi has asked the officials to make sure all city buses ply on the road by Baisakhi next month. He said the buses should be run on all routes in the city so that the people could avail the benefit of the city bus service. Many of the city buses were not plying on roads.

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