The 125km underground cabling work being carried out by the Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited as part of the Jharkhand Sampurn Bijli Achchhadan Yojna has turned the different roads of Dhanbad into pothole zones, complicating the traffic woes of the residents due lack of proper repair of dug up roads

The 500 meter stretch of Hirapur road from Tiwari hotel to Lindsay club is the worst affected at the heart of the town as the road dug up for laying cables remained closed for more than 20 days aggravating the traffic situation.

Moreover, even after the completion of one part of cable laying, proper repair of road was not carried out near the exchange chowk.

Expressing disgust at the situation, Sanjay Kumar, a cyber face operator of Vinod Market adjacent to Tiwari Hotel said, “I faced a lot of difficulty reaching to market from my house at Barmasia due to unplanned digging carried out in front or our market, which further narrowed down the road.”

“The potholes remained uncovered for several days inviting accidents and we even planned to lodge a written complaint but before that the cabling work was completed and somehow the potholes were covered but not properly,” said Kumar.

Sanjeev Chaurasia, president of Park Market Chamber of Commerce, said, “The situation presents a glaring example of unplanned development and wastage of public money due to short sightedness of authorities.”

“Instead of carrying out the underground cabling work after the strengthening of roads, the strengthening of roads should have been carried out before the launching of underground cabling work” said Chaurasia.

"Even if if the underground cabling was launched after the road strengthening the estimate of the underground cabling work should have proper budgetary provision for proper repair of road dug up during the cabling work,” further elaborated Chaursia and added that several other roads like the road connecting Housing colony to Golf Ground front gate is also facing the similar situation as even after more than one year after its digging it is still awaiting repair.

“We will raise the issue with the JBVNL officials in writing soon demanding proper repair of the road” said Chaurasia and added that if the situation persists than school students will have to face a lot of problem after the reopening of schools.

Contacted, General Manager of Dhanbad Supply area of JBVNL, Ajit Kumar, said,“We will immediately look into issue and ensure proper repair of roads.”

Notably, 70% work of Jharkhand Sampurn Bijli Achchhadan Yojna under which the underground cabling of 33000 volt cables as well 11000 volt cables is to be carried out has already been completed. Two gas insulated substation besides other substation are to established as part of scheme which aims to ensure greater safety, lower transmission losses, lower maintenance cost and uninterrupted power supply during adverse weather condition like storm, rain etc.