2 months after carpeting, Patiala roads start developing cracks

In what seems to be a cheap-work-done-quickly, the newly constructed roads in the city have started deteriorating in just 30 days of their construction. A resident of Punjabi Bagh, Kuljeet Singh, showed the damaged portion of the road in front of his house, which he said, was constructed last month. “If such is the level of development, then we don’t need it,” he said.

“It is a sheer wastage of public money and MC officials must intervene,” he said, while fearing the road could get further damaged with season’s first rain if not repaired immediately.

Another area resident Baljinder Kaur said such a poor construction was not expected. The city lacks quality infrastructure, she said.

It is not a lone case as the condition of other new roads is too worrisome. For instance, gravels can be seen coming out of newly constructed roads in Tripari area even as small pits too are emerging.

Area shopkeepers said the road could not sustain for two weeks. The contractors should be heavily penalised for such shoddy work, they said.

An MC official asserted that the roads were constructed at a time when the weather was not fit to hold the gravel. The matter has been reported to the higher officials, he said.

MC commissioner PS Chahal said he would get the survey of new roads done and immediately get it repaired so that their conditions don’t deteriorate further.

“As per government rules, it is the responsibility of the contractors to ensure the road quality for full one year after the construction. We will make them repair it again and take punitive action as per municipal rules,” said Chahal.

However, Congress MLA from the area Brahm Mohindra alleged that the newly constructed roads in the city were a fit case of how MC heavily compromised with quality in rush to wind up the development projects before the coming assembly elections.