No road cutting after Aug 20: Walia to MCD

Already struggling to meet Games-related deadlines set by chief minister Sheila Dikshit, the civic agencies now have one more date to adhere to: no road cutting after August 20. Atul Mathur reports.

Another day, another deadline — which may or may not be met.

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Already struggling to meet Games-related deadlines set by chief minister Sheila Dikshit, the civic agencies now have one more date to adhere to: no road cutting after August 20.

The diktat, this time, has come from urban development minister Ashok Kumar Walia. Expressing his concern over rampant cases of road cutting, mostly to lay down cables, Walia said he has asked his department to ensure no agency — government or private — take up any work that requires road cutting.

"At certain places road cutting has been done even after the completion of carpeting of road … it also damages roads and footpaths," Walia said.

"It is mostly the power discoms, telecom companies and ECIL that are carrying out road cutting work. We have told these agencies to complete their work by August 16," he added.

While the diktat has come, it would be interesting to see if the agencies actually adhere to it. Chief minister Sheila Dikshit had set July 31 as deadline for any kind of digging work, August 10 for removal of debris and August 31 as completion of all games-related projects.

work on seven games related projects would continue till at least second week of September.

Walia has also asked Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and Delhi Police to ensure there is no poster, banner and or writing visible in the city.

HT recently carried a story (Delhi's graffiti artists take their war against games to walls, August 9) on how walls along arterial roads had been painted by the anti-Games groups.

Sheila's visit

Unhappy over slow pace of removal of debris, CM Sheila Dikshit visited various construction sites.

Her visit came a day after the government extended the deadline for removal of debris to August 31. Dikshit visited CP, various parts of south and central Delhi such as Paharganj and Karol Bagh where heaps of rubble can still be seen due to the ongoing construction and underground cabling work.