Assembly elections over, stalled development works to gain pace

PRAYAGRAJ: With assembly polls over, various development works stalled mid-way or progressing at a snail’s pace are expected to gain momentum.

Now that the entire staff of various organisations like Prayagraj Development Authority (PDA), Public Works Department (PWD), Zilla Panchayat and Tourism department have come back from election duty, the stalled projects and work thereof are all set to pick up pace.

Among these works is the complete makeover of 10 major roads by the PWD spread across different state assembly segments including Karchana, Pratappur, Soraon, Allahabad South and Meja among others. “The width of these roads has to be increased. Fifty to 80% of the work has been done prior to elections,” said a PWD official.

The work on phase one of the ring road between Naini to Phulpur will also pick up speed.

A budget of about Rs 3500 crore has been approved for it. The process to acquire land for the 30 km ring road is on which was stopped due to elections. The first phase is to be completed before 2025 Maha Kumbh.

The construction of railway over bridge being built on Bakshi bandh is still incomplete as chunk of staff was on election duty.

It is believed that the bridge would be open for normal traffic before rains, after which the locals living in Daraganj will not have to deal with traffic jams.

The works being taken up by the Prayagraj Development Authority too will gain momentum. This includes the work of allotment of plots for Sangam Vihar project.

“We had made detailed project report (DPR) of various ambitious projects but tenders were not invited because of the model code of conduct in place. Now that the elections are over, pace of works will be back on track”, said vice chairman of PDA, Arvind Kumar Chauhan.

Officials of different government departments also opine that now that the work for various projects would again father speed, it will improve the standing of the city in terms of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan survey. The district had come down seven places in the last edition of the survey.

Besides, the work for starting a light and sound show at Chandra Shekhar Azad Park under Prayagraj Smart City initiative will also get implemented. Last week, divisional commissioner Sanjay Kumar Goyal had inspected Azad Park and had directed to complete the work by the end of April.

We had made detailed project report (DPR) of various ambitious projects but tenders were not invited because of the model code of conduct in place. Now that the elections are over, pace of works will be back on track. ARVIND KUMAR CHAUHAN,

Vice chairman of PDA