Badal road a shadow of past glory

Blurb: Harsimrat writes to Centre for repairs

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, July 26

Once among the best stretches in Punjab, the road from Bathinda to former CM Parkash Singh Badal’s native Badal village has fallen into disrepair.

This has prompted Union Minister and MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal to write to Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari seeking immediate repair of four stretches, including the Bathinda-Ghudda-Badal road.

Repairs of the stretch haven’t been carried out for a long time despite it being used regularly by Harsimrat, state Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal.

The road was constructed by the Public Works Department (PWD) at a cost of Rs 26 crore from the Central Road Fund (CRF).

Harsimrat claimed the four stretches in her parliamentary constituency — 25-km Bathinda-Ghudda-Badal road, 9.5-km Ratia-Sardulgarh road, 19.51-km Sardulgarh-Sirsa road and 18-km Nathana-Bhagapurana road — were in a dilapidated state and needed immediate repairs.

A PWD (B&R) official said the work on the road was listed under the central scheme in 2019-20, but they hadn’t received any update yet.

During the SAD-BJP regime, Badal village was the only one in the state to have a four-lane road dotted by palm trees, solar lighting and an array of buildings.