Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Tuesday roadshow here might have been stupendous, but Ranchiites have to live with bad roads.

Some BJP party workers told this paper that they had to face serious flak from people during election season over a poorly finished road that was broadened and strengthened at a cost of Rs 8 crore at Harmu Housing Colony.

Councillor of ward 26, under which the road falls, and BJP worker Arun Kumar Jha said frankly, “This road is constructed by road construction department with an investment of Rs 8 crore but people are not happy. They often call me up or hoot me when I go (to campaign for the BJP) as they face problems on this road. People always ask me, why is the finishing of the road so poor, why are you not doing anything about the gaps, why are you not paving the road properly so that people residing alongside the road don’t face problems while entering their homes.”

Jha added he did not know what to tell people. “The contractor who was given charge of the project has said he is helpless. He says he was not been paid extra, meaning for all this (pending) work.”

Another BJP worker Gopal Prasad Soni echoed Jha saying the absence of finishing touches had marred the entire road project.

“Despite getting a job done here (the road project), we party workers are at the receiving end,” Soni said, sharing his problems during election campaign in the locality.

Student and resident of the locality Sonal Kumari said people could not be blamed for asking pointed questions. “For widening and strengthening work, soil was cut and dumped in such a way that one can’t walks or drive properly on the road. If it rains even a little bit, the road is all muddy. Going to Harmu Bazar from Home Guard office, which is a common route, gets difficult. This is a daily problem,” she said.

Foundation for road widening was laid on March 4 last year. The road in question is 2.5km and used by over 50,000 people daily. However, it is not a continuous stretch but divided into four parts, the first from Kartik Oraon Chowk to Maa Laxmi Plaza (via house HI-85), second from Power House Road to house H-100 via house LS 96, third from Kartik Oraon Chowk to Daroga Roy Chowk via Imli Chowk and Veer Kuwar Singh Chowk and the fourth from Veer Kunwar Singh Chowk to Mukti Dham.

Contacted, chief engineer of road construction department Madan Kumar admitted that there was a problem.

“I can understand the problem, I will ask the engineer concerned to look into the matter as soon as possible so that people should not suffer,” Kumar said.