CM sets up committee to suggest remedial action in 30 days on Airport Road
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday constituted a 4-member committee to suggest urgent remedial measures for the severely damaged killer Airport Road, already under scanner by the Vigilance Bureau, in Mohali. The committee will comprise the Chief Minister's Technical Advisor Lt. Gen. B.S. Dhaliwal, Chief Engineer National Highway PWD (B&R) A.K. Singla, Chief Engineer GMADA Sunil Kansal and Principal Scientist& Head of Flexible Pavements Division Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) Manoj Kumar Shukla. Built at a whopping Rs 15 crore cost under the Akali regime, the 200-ft-wide road, leading to Chandigarh International Airport in Mohali, has claimed many lives and become virtually non-motorable in less than 2 years of construction. One of the major projects undertaken by the tainted former GMADA chief engineer Surinder Pal Singh, aka Pehalwan, the road is already at the centre of a technical investigation by the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI). Pehalwan is at present behind the bars in cases of corruption and disproportionate assets. CRRI, which was entrusted with the investigation in February this year, had submitted its report on July 4 and the same was examined by GMADA Engineers, who conveyed their observations to CRRI on July 21. A CRRI team, along with the top brass of the State Vigilance Bureau, visited Mohali on September 20 to inspect various stretches of damaged roads, which were constructed during the previous regime. The team has collected three more samples - from PR-9 200' wide road from Airport Chowk to Kharar-Banur Road, which was badly damaged, and one sample each from TDI road, Aerocity Road and NH-64 to NH-22 Road. Meanwhile, Additional Chief Secretary Housing and Urban Development Vinni Mahajan said the ongoing investigation must reach its logical end to enable fixing the responsibility of the erring officials involved in this project, because the remedial action in terms of even repair and maintenance of damaged portion of these roads was likely to cost the state exchequer quite heavily.
