Potholed roads: Rain adds to commuters’ woes

Tribune News Service

Harshraj Singh

Ludhiana, March 18

After rain lashed the city on Saturday, commuters faced inconvenience on potholed roads of the city. The departments concerned are yet to ensure repair of various broken roads in the city.

Residents have been complaining about potholes on Hambran Road, Sherpur Road, Damoria Bridge Road, the Dana Mandi to Dugri Chowk road, different stretches in Haibowal, in industrial areas and several other parts of the city for a long time.

Besides, commuters have been facing trouble on badly broken GLADA’s 200 Feet Road and PWD’s Southern Bypass highway as the recarpeting works on these stretches was yet to be done.

Damaged portions of Ferozepur Road, where the Elevated Road project work is underway, are also yet to be repaired. After rainfall, muddy conditions increased the woes of the commuters.

A resident, Gaganpreet Singh, said the departments concerned must take steps to ensure the repair of the broken roads.

“It was difficult to drive vehicles on broken roads. When the people pay taxes, the government must ensure the provision of good road infrastructure,” he said.

Notably, private contractors recently started the recarpeting work on some roads under the civic body. An official said repair works of potholed roads would be carried out by the MC itself.

MC’s Executive Engineer Sanjeev Kumar said the civic body’s hot-mix plant was running for two days but operations were later stopped due to rain.

He said once the weather conditions were improved, the hot-mix plant would be made operational.

Waterlogging in some areas

Waterlogging occurred in a few areas amid rain. After which, road gullies were lying choked in the affected areas.

A shopkeeper on Dugri-Dhandra Road, Sanjeev, said the road had worsened after rain on Saturday. “We have been staging protests for long but nothing has been done.”

Dugri-Dhandra Road in pathetic state

Residents slammed elected representatives and the government for failing to get the damaged stretch of Dugri-Dhandra Road repaired. They said the broken stretch was an open invitation to accidents but the government authorities have turned a blind eye towards the issue.