Nearly 150 rural roads, 10 bridges damaged in floods across Punjab, says PWD
The PWD assessment also added that there has not been any report of major damage to any private or government main buildings yet in the state.
At least 150 rural roads and 10 small bridges have been damaged in floods in Punjab in the past three days, reveals the initial assessment by the state Public Works Department (PWD).
The PWD assessment also added that there has not been any report of major damage to any private or government main buildings yet in the state.
“The exact damage cannot be assessed at this stage as our officers are busy with the rescue operations. However, we have received around 80 reports from our ground staff. A complete assessment will be done in a couple of days,” a senior PWD official, who did not wish to be named, said.
Another senior official said till now, no major incident of any main road getting damaged has been reported barring a few incidents, including one in Garshankar in Hoshiarpur district road where a small bridge collapsed due to flooding.
“At some points, roads were deliberately damaged to release the water. Initial assessment reveals that maximum damage to roads has been reported in Ludhiana district where around 20 rural roads and small bridges in rural areas have been damaged,” the official added.
“Various roads in rural areas have been shut for traffic in the district. Nearly 65 roads are said to have been affected by the floods, especially in the Machiwara area,” the official added.
In Hoshiarpur, 13 link roads are said to be damaged, initial reports suggest. In Ropar, an assessment is still underway as the damage to roads could be high due to heavy flow of water, especially in the Kandi areas. Here many roads, including the main road, connecting Rupnagar to Chamkaur Sahib, remained suspended for traffic on Sunday.
In Morinda, the road leading to Ludhiana has been damaged on the Railway Over Bridge.
The National Highway, connecting Delhi to Dharamshala via Nangal-Una, remained suspended for traffic on Saturday for nearly four hours. However, the traffic flow was normal on Sunday.
In Mohali, maximum damage to infrastructure in rural areas was witnessed in Dera Bassi and Mullanpur areas, situated along the Shivalik foothills.
Traffic on Dera Bassi-Barwala road was affected on a nearly 7 km stretch. Similarly, the road network in the Patiala district has also been damaged with many roads, including Patiala-Dakala Road remaining suspended for traffic. Traffic from a few roads was diverted because of the overflow of water, a PWD official added.
In Sangrur, traffic was affected at Malerkotla-Jarag Khana road due to water overflow.