Roads cry for attention in Jhajjar, commuters a harried lot

Ravinder Saini

The diversion and other roads leading to Bahadurgarh town, Gwalison and Badli village in Jhajjar city are posing a grave threat to commuters, who are facing a lot of inconvenience due to several stretches lying damaged for the past several months.

Locals claim the roads were dug out by the Public Works Department (PWD) for re-carpeting/ repairing some months ago but the work was left incomplete. The situation is giving a tough time to people while driving due to damaged stretches.

Shop owners along the roads are also suffering. They said the dust flying from the roads was not only adversely affecting their business, but also causing respiratory problems.

Devender, a hotelier, said: “The bad condition of the diversion road was posing a serious threat not only to commuters, but to those visiting the shops and other establishments located on both sides on the road, which is lying broken for the past several months. The authorities seem to be in no mood to re-carpet/repair the road despite several complaints.”

“A young girl suffered injuries on her head some months ago when her scooter skidded due to the potholes on the diversion road. Several other two-wheeler riders have also received injuries due to stones scattered on the road. Many times, these stones hit motorbike, scooter riders and cars parked along the road,” he said.

Chiman, a shopkeeper, said: “Many shopkeepers are complaining of respiratory diseases and no water is being sprayed on roads to reduce the dust.”

Sunil, another shopkeeper, said potholes on the road invite mishaps, as several incidents of vehicle-collision have been reported after vehicle drivers apply emergency brakes to avoid potholes.

Subhash, a painter, claimed he had to work inside his shop due to the bad condition of the road, as dust damaged the paintings. The road was dug out some months ago for repair, but nothing had been done so far.

Narender Kumar, Executive Engineer, Public Works Department, said: “The tenders for re-carpeting /repair of all roads were floated some months ago and the work was also started, but it had to be stopped due to the directives of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which slapped a blanket ban on the construction and mining activities in the wake of poor air quality level that time.”

“Biting cold weather is another reason for not resuming construction work as it’s not easy to maintain the quality in bone-chilling weather. Hence, we are now planning to resume the work from February 15 and it will be completed within the next 10 days,” said Narender, adding that water would be sprayed on under-construction work if complaints were being received in this respect.

He said a plan had also been chalked out to construct several new roads in the district. Estimates of the expenses have been sent to the higher authorities for approval. The process to construct the roads will be initiated on getting the approval, he said.

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