Ludhiana: Gill road’s poor health hits commuters hard

LUDHIANA: Travelling on Gill road has become a nightmare for commuters. Poor condition of road and unending recarpeting work have left residents a harried lot. On the other hand, civic officials have cited shortage of material required for road construction for the delay, which is why the MC has even failed to kick start the patch work this time.
Gill road is one of the most important stretches in the city which is used by a large number of residents every day. Importantly, the road is getting recarpetted only after 2014.
The road work had been divided into two parts. While one part was to construct the entire road with bitumen, other part was about upgrade of main chowks with reinforced cement concrete (RCC) material. When work for chowks had started, a hue and cry had been raised because of massive traffic snarls. But the work on the chowks is incomplete and bitumen work is yet to take off.
Harpreet Singh, a commuter, said, “We are actually troubled over Gill Road’s condition as I have to travel daily to my office, which falls on the stretch. The road has been completely damaged at some locations. And then there are potholes on the entire stretch which pose grave danger for commuters.” He said the best punishment for anybody would be to ask him/her to take a round of this road.
Rakesh Singla, executive engineer, bridges and road branch, MC, said, “There is an acute shortage of road construction material, which is why the work has not started. We have already issued three notices to the contractor for completion of this work, but there is hardly any development because the contractor is citing construction material shortage.”