Roads are caught in a vicious cycle of being repaired and getting dug again for civil utilities of various kinds, posing a threat and menace to commuters.
The different works include laying underground pipelines, electricity/phone wires and construction of drains.
At present, Boring Canal Road has been dug at several places for erecting poles for LED lights. Several other roads, too, have been dug for installing electronic traffic signals. A stretch of SP Verma Road was dug along the median on Wednesday to lay a drainage pipeline.
The service lane on the western flank of Beer Chand Patel Marg is also getting dug for laying an underground electricity cable. With the rainy season knocking on the doors, the digging exercise in different parts of the city is posing a danger. Last year, a person died after falling in a similar dug-up road in Kankerbagh during monsoon.
The risk on the dug-up roads is prevailing this year as well. Motorists are facing a tough time in negotiating through Jakkanpur Main Road since a fortnight, as the road has been dug to lay a drainage pipeline. Sources claimed it would take at least a month for the work to be completed.
"Though this road is quite narrow, there is heavy vehicular movement on it. The situation has worsened after the drainage pipeline work started. More than half of the stretch is now unavailable for vehicular movement. Imagine what commuters would have to bear after a few minutes of showers," said Manish Kumar, a resident of the old Jakkanpur area.
The puddle peril prevails in the central parts of the city as well owing to ongoing works on laying big drainage pipelines on SP Verma Road and Sinha Library Road. The work on laying the pipeline in these two thoroughfares fall under a project envisaging development of a network from the existing Nallah in Mandiri area to the SP Verma pumping station at an estimated cost of Rs 9.96 crore.
The Sinha Library Road has been partially closed from April for laying the pipeline and officials claimed it would take around a year's time for the work to be completed. "Though vehicles are not allowed to move on Sinha Library Road, pedestrians walk along the corner of the ditches, which have been constructed to lay the drainage pipelines. Walking near the ditches would be risky on rainy days as anyone can slip," said Ravi Ranjan, a Kidwaipuri resident.
Motorists, naturally, are annoyed with the authorities as cautionary messages are rarely displayed near such stretches. "It is callous on the part of the authorities that cautionary boards for motorists are not placed at such roads, which are getting dug. Last week, I met with a small accident near R-Block after my bike fell in one of the ditches, which was dug for erecting poles for new traffic signals," said Purushottam Kumar, a resident of Gardanibagh.
While motorists are braving risky conditions on the dug-up roads, government agencies are busy passing the buck on each other for taking corrective measures.
"Whenever any road is dug for some civic utility purpose, it is the responsibility of the agency concerned to fill it soon after the work is completed. However, often we are not even told before such works are initiated. Such agencies leave the dug-up stretch open and we have to do their job then," said a senior engineer in the road construction department.
