GLADA fails to start work on 1.5-km Dhandran road-railway line stretch

Two months after the Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA) committed to residents that construction work on the 1.5-km stretch of road from Dhandran Road to Railway Lines (also known as Missing Link 2 project) will be started in 50 days, there has been no movement on the ground on the project. The land for the project had been acquired more than five years ago at a cost of `200 crore.

GMADA officials had assured residents that the road would be constructed after they had staged a protest on December 17, 2014.

Previously, GMADA officials had claimed claimed that the work on the Gill village side (area after crossing the railway lines) under missing Link 2 project could not be started as the case was sub judice in the Supreme Court.

Now, officials claim that work on the stretch from Dhadran Road up to railway lines (under Missing link 2) also cannot begin without the court's permission.

The background

GLADA had acquired the land for this stretch by spending more than `200 crore to construct the bypass that was to pass through the Gill village. Five years later, GLADA has not even managed to construct the stretch up to railway lines. "We are suffering a lot as the road has not been constructed. Mishaps are commonplace," said Gurveer Singh, a resident of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar.

"We went to meet officers in GLADA, who told us that the road would be constructed after getting permission from the Supreme Court. We were told that that the court had stayed the construction of road on the Gill side, but the order does not cover the stretch from Dhandran Road to the Railway Lines. If there was a stay, then why had GLADA floated tenders earlier?," he added

SAD leader Sarbjit Singh Kochar said, "In December 2014, GLADA assured us that tenders will be floated, but nothing was done. We are facing inconvenience as development has come to a halt. We will raise the matter again."

GLADA executive engineer Ranjit Singh claimed that only higher authorities could answer on the issue.

GLADA additional chief engineer Kuldeep Singh had previously claimed that the construction work will start within 50 days. Now, in spite of repeated attempts he did not attend the calls.

GLADA chief administrator GK Singh repeated the line that the case was sub judice in the Supreme Court. "We will start work only after getting permission from the court," he added.