Work on Abohar bypass resumes

Raj Sadosh

Abohar, March 18

The Public Works Department has resumed work to widen the city bypass linking the Fazilka-Abohar-Malout stretch of the national highway that was suspended a few months ago.

The Tribune had last month highlighted that the work started in December 2016 has not been completed yet.

PWD Minister Vijay Inder Singla had told The Tribune in the last week of February that the Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board could not get work completed within the stipulated time. “We took up the release of pending funds in the first week of February with the Centre. As soon as funds are received, the pending work will be expedited,” Singla had assured.

The minister on May 16, 2018, had suspended some officials and chargesheeted two of them after samples taken from the bypass failed quality test. The minister along with Hussan Lal, secretary, Public Works Department, and a quality control team had inspected the work on the bypass on May 14 last year. The team had taken samples of bitumen and tiles laid on the central divider. It was found that most tiles had developed cracks within 10 days. It was observed that no cement mortar was used to place the tiles. Two samples were found to be substandard and fell in the rejected category.

Business activities had nosedived due to suspended construction work and residents of the colonies located on both sides had to bear with blockages in waste water disposal.

Residents and businessmen on Monday distributed sweets as work was resumed by the contractors.