Railway overbridge footpath damaged within one year

The PWD authorities have ordered the repair work on a portion of the railway overbridge (ROB) on the Ballabhgarh-Sohna highway under the Defect Liability Period (DLP) of the contract. There have been reports of damage to the footpath within one year of the maintenance project costing around Rs 63 lakh.

The move comes after lodging of a complaint at the CM window about three months ago by a local resident who had alleged substandard work in the project and demanded a probe into the matter and action against the agency concerned. “Despite spending several lakhs on laying the main footpath of the ROB with tiles, the passage got damaged within a few months of the completion of the work, perhaps due to shoddy or poor quality of work done by the agency concerned,’’ said the complaint, raised by Gurmeet Singh Deol, an activist connected with one of the NGOs working on road safety in the city.

Poor quality

Despite spending several lakhs on laying the main footpath of the ROB with tiles, the passage got damaged within a few months of the completion of the work, perhaps due to shoddy or poor quality of work done by the agency concerned. — Gurmeet Singh Deol, activist

Two-wheelers to blame

There had been no provision to stop the two- wheelers from using the footpath and the passage was opened to two-wheelers prior to the minimum of 28 days, the time period required for the bonding of the tiles. — Pradeep Sindhu, Executive Engineer, PWD

Claiming that while the newly laid tiles on the footpath got damaged or broke down within a very short period, he said it pointed to the substandard quality of work done, which had led to its damage in such a short time period. He said while he tried to convince local officials, the matter was brought to the notice of the higher authorities through the complaint lodged at the CM window in May this year.

It is reported that a team of department officials conducted an inspection and site visit on Monday and found that the allegations were correct. The department passed the directions to the contractor to launch repair works as per the provisions of the contract.

Pradeep Sindhu, Executive Engineer, PWD, said that plying of two-wheelers on the newly laid tiles had damaged the footpath. There had been no provision to stop the two- wheelers from using the footpath and the passage was opened for 2-wheelers prior to the minimum of 28 days, time period required for bonding of the tiles. He said the contracting agency has been directed to carry out repairs under the DLP and this time, the footpath would be made of pure concrete base so that it does not get damaged again.

Meanwhile, the Haryana State Road and Bridges Development Corporation (HSRBDC) is expected to take up the four-laning of the ROB on National Highway near Ballabhgarh at a cost of around Rs 70 crore. The narrow passage (two lanes at present) had been a major traffic bottleneck on NH-19. With the DPR ready, the work will be taken up by the HSRBDC and the Indian Railways on around 0.99 acres of land due to be transferred shortly for the purpose,’’ said Rahul Singh, Executive Engineer, HSRBDC.