The Ashiana-Digha four-lane road project is headed for completion by February-end after missing four deadlines in as many years.

The road construction department (RCD) has started the construction of the 1m-wide median between the old road and the new culvert box constructed over the abutting drain to convert the entire road into a 15m-wide four-lane thoroughfare. RCD officials said once the median on the entire stretch is constructed, the old road would be repaired and the new four-lane would be ready by February-end.

“The work for the construction of the median has started from first week of January. After the median is constructed, we would start the work for repairing the old road. Once the road is repaired, it along with the culvert, would turn into a four-lane thoroughfare,” said a senior official in the New Capital division of the department.

At present, the Ashiana-Digha road is a two-way single-lane road that is 7m-wide.

Once the drain gets completely covered, the stretch from Ashiana Mor to Rajiv Nagar drain would be 14m-wide, making double-lane traffic movement on both sides. The work was stipulated to be completed by January 2011, which was extended to March 2012, and further to June 2013. The work for the construction of the culvert over Ashiana-Rajiv Nagar drain was done by Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam Limited.

Sources said the reason behind delay in execution in the project has been encroachment on the drain by houses abutting it. “A few people living in the houses abutting the drain did not allow the demolition of the front wall of their house, which has been built by encroaching the canal. As a result, the culvert has not been constructed over a stretch of 30m over the drain,” said a senior official of BRPNNL associated with the project.

Except the 30m stretch, which is facing litigation at present, the four-lane road would be ready over the remaining stretch of 1,820m. This would benefit thousands of residents in Ashiana Nagar, Ramnagari Colonies, Rajeev Nagar and Friends Colony among other neighbourhoods.

“I had stopped using Ashiana-Digha Road because it was full of potholes and dust because of the construction work over the past five years. However, I am glad that they are going to complete the work. Making the road four-lane was extremely necessary as this part of the city has become densely polluted, making it one of the busiest thoroughfares,” said Prakash Kumar, a resident of Ramnagari Sector 2.

The RCD officials, however, seemed apprehensive about the future of the existing road, as they claimed that the underground water supply pipelines are damaged. “Water leakage would damage the repaired road within a few months. Accordingly, we have written a few letters to Bihar Rajya Jal Parishad to replace the old and damaged pipeline with new ones but we have got no response from them yet,” said the RCD official.

The extended road would have streetlights. Officials said once the work for four-laning is completed, they would ask the agency concerned to install streetlights. At present, Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation is working on installation of 1,100 streetlights in Patna.