Ludhiana | 3 weeks on, road cave-in site still under repair; traffic remains disrupted
As the railway crossing has been closed, the traffic moving towards Model Town extension or Shastri Nagar from Malhar road and Bhai Bala chowk has to now take a detour from Green Field, Model Gram and Harnam Nagar area to reach Model Town extension in Ludhiana. The other route is to move through Sarabha Nagar and Pakhowal road RUB for reaching Model Town extension and vice versa
The municipal corporation’s (MC) failure to repair the road cave-in site near Shastri Nagar railway crossing even after three weeks has been taking a toll on commuters, who have to take a detour to reach their destination due to the closed railroad crossing.
Heavy traffic jams at diverted routes, including Kochar Market chowk, Pakhowal road RUB among other areas, have added to the woes of commuters, who have already been witnessing snarls in the areas due to ongoing construction of Pakhowal road ROB/RUB project with maximum inconvenience during peak hours due to movement of school buses.
As the railway crossing has been closed, the traffic moving towards Model Town extension or Shastri Nagar from Malhar road and Bhai Bala chowk has to now take a detour from Green Field, Model Gram and Harnam Nagar area to reach Model Town extension. The other route is to move through Sarabha Nagar and Pakhowal road RUB for reaching Model Town extension and vice versa.
Due to traffic jams being witnessed on these routes, it takes 15-20 minutes extra to reach the destination.
A resident of Model Town extension, Arshdeep Singh, said the traffic problem is becoming worse in the city. “Already the movement of traffic is disrupted on Ferozepur road, Bus stand road, Pakhowal road due to the ongoing projects and the delay by authorities in repairing the Shastri Nagar railway crossing site is adding to the woes, he said, adding that at least one side of the road should be opened to traffic as festival season was going on and traffic jams were already troubling residents across the city.
‘Traffic police not deployed’
Another resident, Ankur of Sarabha Nagar, said the journey from Sarabha Nagar to Model town extension which usually took around 10-15 minutes, now takes around 25-30 minutes due to the traffic jams. “ Even as the authorities are aware of the entire problem, traffic police have still not been deployed at many of the points and the public is left to suffer. We understand that it is important to repair the road portion, but authorities should also take some steps to reduce harassment being caused to the public,” said Ankur.
Meanwhile, MC executive engineer Pardeep Saluja said it was taking some time to repair the damaged brick sewer lines due to the depth of the line and also concrete had been poured to ensure that the line does not get damaged again. “It may take around 10 more days to repair the road portion. As commuters are troubled due to closure of the road, we will inspect the area on Wednesday to see whether the road can be opened without posing danger to the lives and without creating a hurdle in the ongoing repair work,” he said.
A major portion of road had caved-in after the city witnessed rainfall on September 21. In a major embarrassment for the MC, the same portion of the road near Shastri Nagar railway crossing had caved-in twice in nine days due to the damage reported to the decades-old brick sewer line. Due to this, the authorities are taking more precautions while taking up repair works.