Work on 1.7km green belt track resumes, inquiry into delays likely

Gurugram A day after a local ward councillor submitted a letter to the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh, asking for an inquiry

Gurugram A day after a local ward councillor submitted a letter to the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh, asking for an inquiry to be marked into the work being carried out on the green belt lying between Bristol Chowk and Khushboo Chowk along Gurgaon-Faridabad Road, work has restarted at the spot. The mayor, Madhu Azad, has also asked for an inquiry to be carried out in this regard.

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RS Rathee, councillor of ward 34 had submitted a letter to the MCG commissioner on Wednesday regarding a 1.7-kilometre track being built between the two junctions.

His letter stated that work on 600 metres had already been done in 2018 and a work order was allotted on September 10, 2019, for completing the remaining 1.1 kilometres.

“Upon my visit to stretch two weeks ago, I noticed that barely any work had been carried out. I inquired and found that work estimated to be around ₹11 lakh had been carried out even though the entire payment of ₹35.35 lakh had been submitted to the contractor in October. In addition, terrazzo tiles, worth ₹17.40 lakh, were also not in sight. Hence, I asked the MCG commissioner for an inquiry to be marked into the matter,” said Rathee.

Rathee said that on Thursday morning, the contractor started laying tiles at the spot and he found that tiles of poor quality were being put in place to finish the work quickly. He alleged that wet tiles, which have not been fully cured, have been sourced from a factory.

He said that MCG officials have either colluded or completely overlooked the ongoing work and incorrectly made the entire payment to the contractor for the project in October 2019, even though the work was at a nascent stage.

“Mayor Madhu Azad has also written a letter to the MCG commissioner today (Thursday), asking for all the documents and bills related to this issue to be submitted within a week, and also investigate into the discrepancies and look into the engineering wing overlooking the matter,” said Rathee.

He said that he will raise the issue during the informal interaction between councillors and the MCG commissioner on Friday.

MCG commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh on Wednesday had said that he received the letter from Rathee and marked it to the joint commissioner concerned for undertaking the requisite measures.