RailEnquiry

LUDHIANA: If residents of Bhai Deep Singh Nagar feel the railways have shortchanged them, it's with good reason. According to the residents, the Dhuri railway line crosses Dugi-Malerkotla road and authorities promised them a gate on the road to make a passage connecting the area with Dugri. However, three years after the promise was made, there is no sign of its fulfillment.According to former advocate and area resident Dharam Singh, railway officials promised to complete the work in one year but were unable to do so. They cited a problem with the design which led to a flaw in the sewerage plans too.In 2010, raw material to lay sewerage pipes were bought for Rs 2 crore. But the raw material has not been used till date. The sewerage pipes were finally laid around two months ago using a system which rendered the raw material bought for Rs 2 crore irrelevant. But the department has not given a completion certificate on the grounds of a problem with the designs.The first tender for this work was opened on November 21, 2010 but the process did not work out, due to which Rs 2 crore was wasted. On June 6, 2012, executive engineer William Jeet Singh and chief engineer from Chandigarh S K Kumar assured people in a written application that they would get the work completed in 15 days. However, the written assurance was not followed up by action on the ground.On being questioned, the executive engineer said he has been transferred to Amritsar and is not required to comment on the matter. Area residents and people visiting Malerkotla are a pretty harried lot. They have to take detours which extend the journey by hours.Around Rs 4 crore have been spent on this project till date but sadly, there's practically nothing to show for it.