Like darkness under the lamp, in the very backyard of the State’s administrative capital where there are no dearth of engineers, workers and most of all vigilance, shoddy construction of a road seemed to be a tight slap on the government’s tall claims of corruption free development and welfare.
A concrete road laid out in Nuagaon village in the outskirts of Bhubaneswar few weeks ago has now surprisingly started to peel off much to the dismay of the locals.
People of the area complain that despite being carpeted recently, such is the poor quality of the project work that one can easily remove the topping from the road with bare hands and home tools. At several places, the road has also developed wide cracks making it difficult for people to commute.
Locals have leveled serious allegations against the contractor in charge of the project. Tension sparked in the area today after residents of the village demanded immediate intervention of the administration to carry out a probe into the irregularities in road construction.
“After years of demands, our region witnessed a pucca road but unfortunately the situation seems like we are back to square one. Because the road won’t even last this fall,” said a local resident.
He informed that as per the estimate of the project, the road should have been laid with around 10 inches of concrete however the contractor has reportedly done away with 3 to 4 inches of topping. This apart, the proportion of raw materials is also not upto the mark.
In his reaction to OTV, BMC Executive Engineer Jagannath Patnaik said a thorough inspection of the construction work will be carried out and stringent action will be taken against those guilty in case we find any irregularities.