Traffic on the busy Lake Road came to a grinding halt for over an hour on Monday due to the ongoing drain repair work by Ranchi road division.

The slabs of a huge drain, snaking through Lake Road, were removed near the boundary wall of LEBB High School on June 18 for the repair work, snapping its link with Bangla School road. Slabs in another adjoining road were removed last week on Wednesday, while on Friday slabs connecting JJ Road with Lake Road near the water tower were removed affecting vehicular movements and leading to hour-long traffic congestions.

On Monday morning, traffic went out of gear near Marwari College and telephone exchange as a portion of JJ Road, from Shaheed Chowk to the Water Tower, was blocked, forcing the commuters to move towards Cartsarai Road in Upper Bazar that connects with Main Road. This led to massive traffic chaos on Cartsarai Road.

"The drain repair work is very important. But, the road construction department or even the civic body should have informed in advance about the work as Lake Road is an important artery," said Prem Kataruka, businessman and chief convener of Rashtriya Jan Parishad (RJP), a non-political group formed by the residents of Old Commissioners' Compound(OCC).

Kataruka said he had requested the workers to put up sign boards at various points where repair work is going on. "But no one bothered to do that," he added.

On Saturday, Lake Road had witnessed traffic bottlenecks when a heavy vehicle could not move after one of its wheel's got stuck in a pit dug up near Bada Lal Street turn on JJ Road.

Rajendra Kumar Sarawgi, another member of RJP said: "From June 18, the ongoing work had been creating problems for people of other localities who were not aware of the work and wanted to reach Kishoreganj via Lake Road from Main Road side. As a result, Shahid Chowk and all the lanes of OCC like Vishnu Lane, Lalji Hirji Road, SN Ganguly Road are witnessing snarls."

Sarawgi said that works of many business establishments dealing in plywood, paints and hardware were affected as the vehicles that ferry goods could not reach on time.

When contacted, executive engineer of Ranchi road division Sanjay Kumar refused to comment on the matter.