Ghaziabad races against time to meet deadline for pothole repairs

HT team visited several areas in the city on Wednesday and found potholes in Vasundhara sectors 4 and 5, Bulandshahr industrial area, the ESI Road in Shalimar Garden and 150-ft road in Shalimar Garden

Different agencies are racing against time to repair roads before the June 15 deadline set by UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, but residents are not optimistic about the work being completed in time.

A broken road in Aradhana, near Shalimar Garden in Ghaziabad, on Wednesday. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had set a deadline of June 15 to complete all road repair works in Uttar Pradesh. (Sakib Ali/HT Photos)

Residents said some of the roads have been repaired but there is still a lot of work left to make roads pothole-free before the onset of monsoon.

“According to our assessment, nearly 60%-70% work is complete but some patches are yet to be repaired in Rajendra Nagar Sector 2, ESI Road in Shalimar Garden, Pasonda to Shalimar Garden Road and on internal roads in Shalimar Garden,” said Jugal Kishor, resident of Shalimar Garden.

This road in Vasundhra Sector 5 in Ghaziabad has gone missing under the potholes. A budget of Rs 1,400 crore was allotted for work across the state. (Sakib Ali /HT Photo)

An HT team visited several areas in the city on Wednesday and found potholes in the Bulandshahr industrial area, Vasundhara sectors 4 and 5, the ESI Road in Shalimar Garden, the 150-foot road in Shalimar Garden Extension-1 and also near old bus stand.

“We have two craters in Sector 4. The other potholed roads near Vaishali metro station have been repaired. Even if the agencies miss the June 15 deadline, we hope they get the work done before the monsoon,” said Jagdish Bisht of Sector 2, Vaishali.

On their part, the district administration has roped in several agencies, including the public works department (PWD), the Ghaziabad development authority and the municipal corporation, for the repair work.

The PWD officials said they have broken down the work into three categories – simple patch repair, renewal, and special repair. The first one targets potholes, the second one major patches and the third involves resurfacing of completely broken down roads.

Water stagnates in a pothole-riddled stretch in Shalimar Garden, Ghaziabad, on Wednesday. (Sakib Ali /HT Photo)

“We completed pothole repair on the entire 215km. Of the 51.15km in the second category, we completed work on 39.5km. In the case of special repair, we completed work on 51km out of 70.15km. The overall work completed is nearly 85%,” said Manish Verma, executive engineer, PWD.

“Apart for the first category, for which we received the sanctioned amount of Rs 166.92 lakh, we have got only 20% of the Rs 550 lakh and the Rs 1,044 lakh allotted for the second and third category repairs, respectively,” he said.

The GDA officials also said they will complete most of the road network by June 15. The corporation officials said they have completed more than 63km out of 76km identified under the first phase.

“We identified more than 54km to be repaired in the second phase at a cost of Rs 3.23 crore. We maintain nearly 3032km of road network. Tenders have been issued for the second phase,” said Sanjay Chauhan, executive engineer, Ghaziabad municipal corporation.

District Magistrate Ministhy S said the agencies have done their best considering the budget available with them.

“The agencies have utilised the budget available to them. We will review the progress and the agencies have tried to complete as much work as possible within the given time frame,” she said.