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Commuters negotiate SN Ganguly Road that has been dug up to lay sewage pipes in Ranchi on Tuesday. (Hardeep Singh)
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Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) may think residents are making a mountain of a mud hill, but busy Upper Bazar area of Ranchi can now be renamed Upper Barrier.
Reason — the RMC has dug up drains at many important streets but forgotten to remove the hillocks of mud.
If you want to experience the roadblocks first-hand, you are welcome to head towards Ranchi Lake from Sarjana Chowk, Main Road, via Lalji Hirji Road, Bangla School Lane and around the Old Commissioner’s Compound (OCC) area.
Countless commuters were trapped in the area on Tuesday afternoon, with the traffic police looking both frazzled and clueless.
Rohit Tigga, a resident of Peace Road in Lalpur, and a BCom Part II student of Marwari College, said he missed his class on Tuesday due to the mud roadblocks.
“I had wanted to reach early for my class at noon, so I took the normal shortcut via Lalji Hirji Road. It took me half-an-hour to cross half a kilometre. I couldn’t enter late, so I missed my class,” the student said.
A traffic constable, who did not want to be named, supported Rohit.
“Yes, commuters are getting their share of problems. Mounds of soil dug out to construct drains have reduced the width of streets. It is the duty of the RMC to remove the soil. But it hasn’t and commuters are suffering,” he said.
When contacted, RMC assistant engineer S.N. Thakur admitted that commuters were facing problems due to the mounds of mud in the busy area.
“I will issue a notice to the Hindpiri-based contractors who have been assigned the work of constructing drains. They are supposed to remove the soil. I had also noticed the soil dumps in various places and had asked them to remove the same. Now, I am going to issue a showcause notice to them and take up the issue at a meeting tomorrow,” he said.
Earlier too, The Telegraph noticed irregularities during construction work and reported the harrowing experiences of commuters.
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