Fund crunch halts admn complex project in Amritsar

Construction work on the much-hyped Rs 78 crore Amritsar Administrative Complex, just near the old office complex, has been stalled for the past few days with the Punjab government failing to release funds for the project.

Construction work on the much-hyped Rs 78 crore Amritsar Administrative Complex, just near the old office complex, has been stalled for the past few days with the Punjab government failing to release funds for the project. Work on the project that was started after a delay of several years was finally started last year and an investment of Rs 17-18 crore has been ploughed into the work.

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Public works department executive engineer JS Sodhi said, "Work was stopped few days back as funds have not been released. The matter is under the consideration of the higher officers and work will resume soon after the issue is resolved." He added that construction work of around Rs 17-18 crore had been completed.

Amritsar needs an administrative complex as it is an important city of the state and officers do need the extra facility to be able to carry out the work load and as several offices in the old building are unsafe.

In the absence of the administrative complex, many offices continue to operate from unsafe buildings. The delay could be especially inconvenient for the police department as it had to shift from the existing office and is functioning from offices set up as ad hoc arrangement. Coordination could suffer even more as the department's offices are now scattered across the city.