Nakodar: Poor rail, road infra a bane

Aparna Banerji

A dilapidated bus stand which has been declared unsafe, incomplete sewerage laying work, bad roads and traffic snarls sum up the story of the Nakodar constituency.

Past trend

The last two terms saw consecutive wins for the SAD. SAD’s Gurpartap Wadala won both the 2012 and 2017 elections. From 1992 to 2007, the seat was with the Congress. From 1997, veteran Congress leader Amarjit Singh Samra had won three straight terms.

Electorate strength

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Total voters – 1,93,655

Male – 1,00,254

Female -93,399

Third gender – 2

Locals’ key demands

• Better education, health infra
• Improved rail connectivity
• Upkeep & repair of bus stand
• Better facilities at Civil Hospital

A railway junction in the constituency has trains only up to Dhanbad, that too, via Ambala. Despite repeated appeals to the state government and the Centre, people’s demand of starting a railway line between Nakodar and Delhi is long-pending.

Meanwhile, roads like the Murad Shah Road and the Kapurthala Road, which had been completed months ago, are already dotted with patchwork. Residents allege poor quality work done on the roads which were repaired just four or five months ago.

A majority of Nakodar residents have to head to Jalandhar for both education and health facilities.

Set up in 1983, the only Civil Hospital here is 50-bedded. While Nakodar recently got a 30-bedded mother and child care centre, residents say for the burgeoning population (currently nearly 4 lakh), at least a 100-bedded Civil Hospital was required.

Meanwhile, the most definitive symbol of collapsing infrastructure in the area is its crumbling bus stand with poor water and sanitation arrangements.

Other than this, traffic snarls, too, pose a big inconvenience to people on busy stretches like Ambedkar Chowk to Sabzi Mandi, Ambedkar Chowk to Dakkhani Adda, bus stand to Hoshiarpur road. With roads being encroached upon and traffic ever increasing, some busy routes sometimes see hour-long jams.