Roads messy, four top Noida officials tasked with overseeing road cleaning

Unhappy with the lack of cleanliness, the CEO assigned one arterial road to each senior officer, including additional chief executive officer Sanjay Kumar Khatri and officer on special duty Mahendra Prasad, who will now be responsible for keeping the roads clean and free of encroachments, said officials

The Noida authority on Monday appointed four nodal officers to ensure that the four arterial city roads remain clean at all times and offer ease to commuters, said authority officials on Tuesday.

Noida authority chief executive officer Lokesh M (in blue T-shirt) during a cleanliness inspection in Sector 16 on Monday. (HT Photo)

The nodal officers have been directed to take effective measures to keep the key roads free of encroachments and litter and also ensure that they are cleaned regularly.

The move comes after Noida authority chief executive officer Lokesh M on Monday, during a site inspection, found these roads dirty and unkempt.

Unhappy with the lack of cleanliness, the CEO assigned one arterial road to each senior officer, including additional chief executive officer Sanjay Kumar Khatri and officer on special duty Mahendra Prasad, who will now be responsible for keeping the roads clean and free of encroachments, said officials.

“We have taken this decision for the betterment of roads and for offering better services to the public who use these roads. Now we will regularly carry out a review to make sure the cleaning and beautification work is done properly,” said Lokesh M.

Additional CEO Khatri will oversee the cleaning and beautification work of the Master Plan 1 road (DND Flyway-Sector 16 to Sector 12) and the road from Sector 94 to Sector 96. OSD Prasad will look after the area from Ashok Nagar to Sector 37 underpass.

Additional CEO Vandana Tripathi has been assigned the work of the Master Plan 2 road (Sector 18 to Sector 60), and additional CEO Satish Pal will take care of the Mater Plan 3 road (Sector 37 to Sector 71).

During his visit to Sector 15 and Sector 16 metro stations, Lokesh M saw garbage strewn all over the place. He instructed officials to impose a penalty of ₹5 lakh each on the contractor tasked with cleaning these areas, said officials.

The CEO also saw the garbage near Sector 16 auto market and directed the health department to withhold the salary of the supervisor concerned besides issuing a warning to the health department officials who are responsible for that area.

The CEO saw footpaths between Sector 15 and Sector 16 in a state of disrepair and ordered the officials to fix them at the earliest.

Residents said that the appointment of nodal officers might yield good results.

“We hope that new move of assigning one road to each senior official will help keep roads clean. Roadside encroachments are rampant and despite numerous complaints, the Noida authority has failed to ensure that roads and footpath remain free of all encroachments. We are hoping that things will change,” said Deepak Sharma, Sector 105 residents’ welfare association.