Title - Residents fume at delay in Railway Station Road widening

GURGAON: The delay in completing the Rs 8.5-crore widening work of the Railway Station Road by the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) has upset the local residents, commuters and traders on both sides of the road alike. Now, residents doubt whether the whole thing is a ploy of the contractors to increase their budget.It has been more than eight months and only 30% of the work has been completed. The project was to be completed in a year's time. Now, residents doubt if the remaining 70% work would be completed within the next four months.Parminder Kataria, deputy mayor, MCG, who inspected the road with two other councillors recently, said, "The work is going slowly, causing problems to commuters. This is one of the busiest roads in the city. We talked to the executive engineer and reminded him to speed up the work."During monsoon, commuters had to face a lot of troubles after the MCG dug up the road to install the master sewer pipeline and the traffic was being diverted to one side of the road. All the traffic coming from Gurgaon city and Farrukh Nagar and Basai had to pass through this narrow one-side of the road. The work on the pipeline has since been completed. However, the road remains one-way.

Even the condition of the one-way is also dilapidated. The pitches are worn out and the road is filled with potholes.

"This is an old game played by the contractors. They delay the projects intentionally and then urge the authorities to sanction more money to finish the remaining work due to escalation of the price of raw material," said D R Yadav, president, Sector 9A RWA.

When TOI contacted Rajesh Bansal, executive engineer, MCG, said, "We have faced several problems. There were several electrical poles and we had to remove these poles while widening the road. Besides, we have yet to get clearance from the forest department as the road passes through greenbelt areas. Again, the sewer line work had to be done on the road. There were also water supply lines on the main road. These lines had to be removed and restored."

***

During office time, it takes more than one hour to pass that narrow stretch of the road. Passengers coming to the station are always at the danger of losing their trains. There is no alternative ways to reach the railway station - Ravi Kumar, commuter.

We face a lot of problems due to slow work on the road. Customers cannot enter the shops and establishments located on the other side of the road --- Virender Kumar, a shopkeeper.

The road was not repaired from the last ten years and now it has started repairing but in a snail's pace, causing problems for all --- Ishan Pokhariyal, a professional.