Authorities rush to repair arched wall on Minto Road

NEW DELHI: A major portion of the arched brick wall on Minto Road near the railway bridge was damaged recently by an excavator being used by a railways contractor.
New Delhi Municipal Council, under whose jurisdiction the area falls, has written to Northern Railway to get the wall repaired immediately in view of the G20 summit in the city.
"During routine inspection of the area on May 30, a junior engineer noticed that the brick arch wall built on the sides of Minto Road near the railway bridge and falling under the jurisdiction of NDMC had been damaged during the execution of some work by a Poclain excavator," said the letter written by NDMC's assistant engineer to Northern Railway's deputy chief engineer (construction) on Tuesday."In view of the above, Northern Railway is requested to instruct subordinate staff and contractors to reconstruct the wall as soon as possible because the G20 summit is going to be held in September."
Minto Road was among the 13 roads that underwent a complete transformation in 2018-19 with beautification and theme-based urban landscaping carried out on the stretch. The otherwise concretised landscape of this spot was turned into sloped green patches and vertical gardens. Arched stone slabs with designs carved on them were installed and a large overhead panel with the national flag put up on the side of Minto Bridge.
On Friday, when TOI visited the spot where a worker said that a wall constructed at the rear of the arched slabs had collapsed, leading to the damaging of at least four of the arches. When asked about this, an NDMC official said, "Northern Railway has assured that the walls will be repaired at the earliest." A senior railways official said that the wall was being repaired by Northern Railway.