Mayor threatens to approach Centre agaisnt city rly authorities

Ludhiana: Irked over the recent query sent by the railway authorities regarding traffic load at Jagraon Bridge when the project work is already underway, Mayor Balkar Sandhu has written a letter to T P Singh, general manager of the Northern railways, asking him to look into the matter else the Ludhiana municipal corporation will complaint against the railway officials to the Union railway minister Piyush Goyal.
Recently, railway officials wrote a letter to the civic authorities asking them to send a detailed plan on the nature of traffic load that will cross through the bridge in order to finalize design part.
The mayor claimed that these things should have been finalized earlier and not at this stage. Moreover, when the railways had already prepared estimates for the bridge worth Rs 24.30 crore, then why are they still asking about the traffic load to pass through the bridge.
The mayor mentioned in his letter that the MC did everything required for this project, but the railway officials never took this project on priority despite the fact that it has disturbed traffic of the industrial town.
He claimed that the railways had first demanded full cost of the bridge and the MC paid the money in one go. The railways also asked for the removal of encroachments from under the bridge. The civic body not only removed illegal structures, but also rehabilitated encroachers to flats in Mundian Kalan. However, the railways are not taking steps to complete the work on the bridge at the earliest.
The mayor said if the railway authorities did not pay attention towards the bridge work even after receiving letters, the MC Ludhiana would raise the matter with the railway minister.
“We will ask the railway minister to pay interest on Rs 24.30 crore paid to the railways last year by the Ludhiana MC if the work is not completed,” he said.
Notably, one side of the Jagraon Bridge was closed on July 14, 2016, by the railway officials declaring it unsafe for commuters. Since then attempts were on to construct the new flyover for smooth flow of traffic.
After many attempts, the construction was started last year and two deadlines have already expired for the completion of the bridge. Recently, a group of city-based NGOs also met the railway minister in this regard.