A JCB machine at the construction site over the canal on the Ashiana-Digha road in Patna. Picture by Ashok Sinha

Patna, May 23: The deadline for construction of concrete box covers on a stretch of 1.8km in the existing canal along the west side of Ashiana-Digha road was January 2011.

Till date, work has been completed for a mere 600m. This is causing severe inconvenience to citizens in the form of encroachment of carriageway by soil and construction debris, traffic jams and overflowing drains.

The work for covering the canal from Ashiana More to the starting point of Rajiv Nagar canal on Ashiana-Digha road was given administrative approval in January 2009.

The project falls under the domain of road construction department, which has assigned the same to its executive agency Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam (BRPNN) Limited for an outlay of Rs 23 crore. After floating tenders, the project was awarded to a joint venture of Baba Hans Private Limited and J. Das and January 2011 was fixed as the target of completion of the project. “As the deadline for the project has expired we are imposing extension penalty on the contractors by charging 0.5 per cent on every bill sent by them plus 10 per cent on standard bidding document. After four such penalties, the corporation would issue two notices to them and if work does not speed up we would cancel their contract and reassign the contract on the remaining amount,” said A.K. Jha, managing director, BRPNN.

Citizens, on the other hand, are aggrieved on the inconvenience caused because of delay in the work. “The work for covering this canal seems to be going on since eternity. There are long queues of vehicles near the construction areas causing traffic jams during peak hours from 9am-11am and 6pm-8pm,” said Abhinav Kumar, a resident of Ram Nagari Colony Sector- II.

He added: “Besides, there are frequent accidents because of construction material lying on the road. More than half of the carriage way is occupied with construction material and soil and sand dug out from the canal. My bike had skidded on sand and stone chips piled along the road.”

Other citizens complained that timely removal of soil is never carried out nor is sweeping of roads done. “The entire area is covered with dust and the situation has worsened in the summer. Most of the people passing through this road are forced to cover their nose and mouth to prevent inhaling dust. If work continues at this rate then it would make life miserable on Ashiana-Digha road during the monsoon,” said Raghunandan Prasad, secretary of Magistrate Colony Co-operative Society.

At present, Ashiana-Digha road is a two-way single-lane road, which is 7m wide. Once the canal gets completely covered, the stretch from Ashiana More to Rajiv Nagar canal would be 14m wide making double-lane traffic movement possible on both sides.

“The sewage from all internal drains from nearby vicinit ies and storm water is discharged in the Ashiana-Rajiv Nagar canal and all these drains were supposed to be discharged in an alternative service canal, but no such canal has been made,” said Mihir Jha, secretary, Ashiana Nagar Co-operative Society.