Pending for months, foot overbridge project in Patiala to be completed soon

Tribune News Service

Patiala, January 1

The Public Works Department’s (PWD) project for constructing foot overbridges outside Kali Mata Temple and Gurdwara Dukhniwaran Sahib will be completed soon. The work was pending for the past 11 months.

Pending since January 25, when Member of Parliament (MP) Preneet Kaur and PWD Minister Vijay Inder Singla laid the foundation stone of a foot overbridge, protruding iron rods can be spotted at one of the sites, which could hurt commuters. Officials said the work remained pending due to many reasons, including the Covid-19 pandemic.

The PWD had decided to construct two foot overbridges outside Kali Mata Temple and Gurdwara Dukhniwaran Sahib at a cost of Rs2.5 crore. Officials said the bridges would help residents cross over to the shrines from opposite sides of the roads. While Gurdwara Dukhniwaran Sahib located at a T-point before the Patiala-Sirhind road, Kali Mata Temple is on the traffic aplenty Mall Road.

The XEN (Central works), Tarsem Raj, who is supervising construction of the foot overbridge outside Kali Mata Temple, said, “The construction work has been delayed due to many changes. The bridge design was changed due to underlying utility services, including wires and pipelines at the site. The changes have to be approved by the authorities concerned.”

“Also, the soil on the temple side is loose. So, we had to change the construction plan. The contractor will be submitting new design and the foot overbridge will be constructed soon,” he added.

Although initial work for the foot overbridge near Gurdwara Dukhniwaran Sahib was started, it could not be completed. Large iron rods protrude out of the ground at the site near gurdwara.

When asked the executive engineer (Central works), Mohali, Yuvraj Singh, said, “The foot overbridge has been constructed and will be installed at the site soon. The bridge got delayed as raw material was not available during the Covid-19 induced lockdown. The bridge will be installed without escalator within a week. The work on the escalator will continue.”

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