LUDHIANA: Complaining against the poor quality of the roads, traffic expert and chairman of Raahat: The Safe Community Foundation, Kamaljit Soi has written to municipal commissioner Pardeep Sabharwal in which he mentioned about the killer pothole on Model Town road where a girl was injured badly and was admitted to the hospital.
Soi said all the city roads have potholes and the condition of the roads is very bad. According to him, this is being ignored and neglected for a long time, leading to fatal accidents and loss of many precious lives. “The surface of the road is broken. There are heaps of road material on both sides of road. They leave only little room in the middle. The side drains are blocked and the water flows out. There are pot-holes on the road and at some places roads look like roads in potholes . The broken culvert is also a danger for vehicles,” he added.
According to the amended Motor Vehicle Act in 2019, the municipal authorities /contractor / consultant/concessionaire should be held responsible and a compensation of Rs 1lakh should be paid to the victim, he pointed out.
Soi demanded that all the potholes should be repaired in the city and action should be taken against the officers/contractors for poor road construction and maintenance. He also said road furniture, warning signs and cautionary signs are missing at most of the roads and these should be installed immediately to prevent accidents.
“Road markings and road studs are also missing, absence of which can cause accidents in winter season on foggy days. No safety is being observed in construction sites, which poses a grave danger to the lives and the property of the innocent citizens,” Soi wrote.
He also said the 91 black spots identified by traffic police are not being corrected for more than four years.
“Unsafe outdoor advertising media in the form of protruding unipoles are posing serious danger to the lives of people. Road side advertising at hazardous places also poses a serious danger, against which orders have been passed by both the Supreme court of India as well as Punjab and Haryana high court,” said Soi, urging authorities to remove them.
Meanwhile, MC commissioner Pardeep Sabharwal said he has not read the letter yet, but the civic body is already paying attention towards improvement of roads and contractors are being told to pay attention towards quality of roads.