Potholed stretch gives jitters to commuters
The road, used by more than five lakh people daily, has 2ftdeep pits and a number of accidents have taken place here
LUCKNOW : If people had a choice, they would fly over rather than commute through the stretch between Anand Nagar to Fateh Ali Talab on Old Jail Road.
This is because despite being used by more than five lakh people of South City, Bangla Bazar, Eldeco, Tyagi Vihar, Shaheed Path, SGPGIMS, Rae Bareli Road, Singar Nagar, Alambagh and Krishna Nagar every day, this road is just a series of potholes and craters.
“This road is one of the busiest and the traffic mostly consists of heavy vehicles like roadways buses, trucks and tempos,” said corporator of the area Shravan Nayak.
“A number of accidents have taken place as there are more than 2 ft deep pits on the road. The patch of road belongs to the Railways which is not constructing it because it wants to stop plying of roadways buses here and the PWD was not able to construct the road because the Railways was not giving it NOC,” he said.
However, it is the commuters who have to pay for the tussle between the Railways and the PWD.
Nayak said, “I have approached the Railways and the PWD several times for construction of the road. The Railways has finally given the NOC but said it would not pay any money to the PWD for road construction as heavy vehicles use it frequently.”
Executive engineer, PWD, Prantiya Khand Jay Singh Maurya said, “I don’t know why the Railways is not constructing the Fateh Ali Road. We have been sending them requests for the past several years but they have not responded. The PWD also sought NOC so that it could construct the road but they have now given us the NOC after three years. Now we will float tenders for road construction but it will take at least 45 days for work to start on this stretch, as the PWD has to follow road construction norms.”
Executive engineer, Railways, MK Pandey said, “The Railways does not have the funds or expertise to maintain roads for heavy vehicles. Ten years back heavy vehicles did not move on this road. But now every bus is using this road, damaging it frequently. So it’s up to the PWD to construct this road and maintain it as we gave them NOC about a year ago. We don’t know why they have not
constructed the road till now.”
Pandey said, “If the PWD wants the Railways to construct this road, then heavy vehicles will not be allowed on this stretch .”
However, no department is willing to repair the road till the process of construction begins.
“I have written to the PWD to carry out repair work till they float tender,” said MK Pandey.