Mohali MC to take over upkeep of Phases 8A, 8B in industrial area

After two years, the Mohali municipal corporation will finally take over the maintenance of the Industrial Area in Phases 8A and 8B from the Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation (PSIEC) in the first week of July.

This comes as a relief to owners of more than 800 industrial units in the area. For two years, the maintenance work was stuck in a bureaucratic maze, and neither the PSIEC nor the MC were attending to poor condition of the area, which is marked by overgrowth, dilapidated roads and non-functional streetlights.

Despite the civic body collecting around ₹16 crore in property tax from the industrial plots here, only ₹1 crore has been released for development work.

For two decades, the area was under the PSIEC, but after a series of meetings with officials in 2019, it was decided that its maintenance will be handed over to the civic body.

Municipal commissioner Kamal Kumar Garg said, “Everything has been finalised and we will be taking over the maintenance in the first week of July. Tenders have been floated for various maintenance work. Also, nine PSIEC employees have been shifted to MC.”

For the last four years, industrialists and workers have been complaining about the poorly-maintained infrastructure.

Mohali Industries Association (MIA) president Yogesh Sagar said, “Due to bureaucratic maze, the maintenance has been severely affected for the last two years. Streetlights are non-functional, choked drains cause waterlogging at the merest excuse of rain and heaps of garbage dot the landscape, attracting stray dogs and cattle.”

Vivek Kapoor, vice-president of MIA, said, “The authorities concerned are testing our patience now. Due to the poor condition, we don’t even feel like going to our units. Even the central scheme of introducing a special purpose vehicle to improve infrastructure remains on paper. The tragic part is that it has been almost two decades now, and we are still asking for basic amenities.”