If the district administration has its way, literally, the distance between areas like Panderpala, Rahmatganj, Bauri Tola, Harijan Tola, Adivasi Tola, Das Tola, Shamsher Nagar, Mahto Tola and Bhuli, and coal town Dhanbad will come down to half a kilometre from seven kilometres.
Acting on the request of local councillors, the administration has initiated steps to construct a road connecting Panderpala with the traction colony of railways near Dhanbad station, thus benefiting more than 65,000 residents besides easing the load on Gaya bridge — the longer, alternative route.
Deputy commissioner (DC) Sunil Kumar Burnwal along with executive engineer of public works department (road) Sushil Kumar inspected the site on Monday in the presence of councillor of ward No. 19 Mohammed Yusuf alias Chotu and councillor of ward No. 39 Rustam Ansari. The DC also instructed the executive engineer to prepare a feasibility report of the project.
“Some technicalities are involved as the maximum length of the proposed road falls in railway land for which an NoC from the railways has to be taken. Once the feasibility report is ready, a detailed project report (DPR) will be prepared,” Burnwal said, adding that they might approach infrastructure consultancy firm Rites for the DPR.
“But that will depend on the fee demanded by the agency. If the rate quoted is high, the DPR will be prepared by the PWD (road) department itself,” he added. Sushil Kumar said the feasibility report would be ready soon.
Councillor Yusuf, under whose jurisdiction Panderpala, Rahmatganj and other localities fall, said at present, the residents had to travel more than 7km to reach Dhanbad. “The new road will bring down the distance to only half a kilometre. We had been demanding for this link since 2003 and had also written to chief minister Arjun Munda and former railway minister Dinesh Trivedi several times. We had also planned to launch a dharna at Randhir Verma Chowk on March 22,” he said.
According to Yusuf, the road will also pave the way for economic development of those areas that are hitherto cut off from Dhanbad town.
