Low quality road material: PWD minister orders suspension of Executive engineer

BATHINDA: Taking serious note of the irregularities in supervision of the construction of Abohar bypass road and following the samples of road material failing to meet the quality standards, Punjab PWD minister Vijay Inder Singla on Wednesday ordered placing the concerned Executive Engineer under suspension issuing show cause notice to the Superintendenting Engineer for failure to supervise the construction work. The minister also ordered charge-sheeting of the concerned sub divisional engineer(SDE) and Junior Engineer.

Vijay Inder along with Secretary PWD Hussan Lal on May 14 had inspected the newly laid road at Abohar and had asked the quality control team to collect samples of building material. Vijay Inder said that the as elected representative of people he will ensure that every penny of peoples’ money is used in the right earnest and the department will not let go any sub-standard construction.

The quality control team had taken samples of bitumen and chequered tiles having been put on the central divider. The visual inspection laid bare the fact that a large number of chequered tiles were cracked and broken within 10 days of the construction. It was further observed that no cement mortar was used to place the tiles as required and provisioned. The samples were examined in the research laboratory of the department. Preliminary investigation reveals that the quality of two samples collected on the spot are sub-standard and falls in the rejected category of materials which prompted the minister to take prompt action, said sources.

The minister said that the detailed investigation is on and necessary action would be initiated against the contractor.