Sewer work affects traffic in Patparganj

The road connects Patparganj with Laxmi Nagar and Pandav Nagar. Along it is the Mother Dairy headquarters near the Laxmi Nagar Metro station. The sewer line was laid in 2019 but the road was left unpaved.

What started as a routine sewer laying work by the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has led to residents of east Delhi’s Patparganj suffering long traffic snarls and dust on the Narwana Road for the last two years.

A senior official said the construction work was affecting traffic on the stretch. (Amal KS/HT PHOTO)

The road connects Patparganj with Laxmi Nagar and Pandav Nagar. Along it is the Mother Dairy headquarters near the Laxmi Nagar Metro station. The sewer line was laid in 2019 but the road was left unpaved.

“Then last year they dug up the road again to lay some more sewer lines and left it unpaved again. Vehicles on both carriageways were forced to squeeze by. In January this year, we met senior Delhi Jal Board officials who assured us that the work will be completed in 15 days, but it is March now and they are yet to open the road for traffic,” said Navneet Nayyar, president of the Ekta Garden residents’ welfare association.

Suresh Bindal, founder and former president of IPEX Societies Mahasangh, an umbrella body of 119 residents’ welfare associations (RWAs) in IP Extension, said, “We have had meetings with the agencies informing them of the delays and how it is causing grave inconvenience to the of residents in the area. Since this is a development work, and this will ease of lot of the area’s water problems, we are also not saying much.”

Officials from the Delhi water utility did not respond to repeated calls and messages asking for a completion date for the project.

On Saturday, when Hindustan Times visited the area, large sewer pipes were on the road side, soil from the excavated road and other construction material was set aside.

Sunil Kumar, a shop owner in Pandav Nagar, said that the closure of road had not only resulted everyday traffic jams and pollution, but also made the road unsafe.

“One carriageway is closed, so commuters from both sides are having to more on just the one available carriageway. Especially after sundown, there have been incidents of minor accidents,” Kumar said.

A senior traffic official of the district said that more than the traffic volume, it was the construction on the road that was causing the traffic snarls.

“It’s becoming a safety hazard more than anything. In the morning and evening rush hours, because of the chaotic movement on this road, cascading jams are causing on the main road near the Mother Dairy and also in internal roads,” the above-mentioned traffic official said.