Crater chaos hits Lodhi Road

NEW DELHI: Coming from Sai Baba temple on Bhishma Pitamah Marg to Lodhi Road, which leads to Golf Links, is not an easy ride for commuters. The road has sunk in and thus the traffic has to take a detour. The future sees no relief for commuters in store with NDMC and MCD fighting amongst themselves and evading the responsibility.
MCD claims that it is willing to reconstruct the road but can only do so once the drain, which according to them caused the road to cave in, is re-built by NDMC.
"The road belongs to MCD but the drain comes under NDMC. It is the drain that caused the road to sink," said V K Mehrotra, chief engineer, MCD (Lodhi Road).
"There has been communication between the two civic bodies and NDMC has been made to understand that they have to take the responsibility of mending the drain. Once they do that, we'll construct the road," he added. While NDMC has finally agreed to repair the road, not much damage-repair activity can be spotted on it.
They, however, maintained that the drain was to be repaired by MCD as it fell under their area. "MCD was supposed to maintain the road as the drain falls under their area.
"The area till the Golf Links boundary has to be maintained by us, while the drain ahead has to be looked after by the MCD officials. However, since they had some issues, we have decided to take the responsibility of repairing the drain," said Y K Malhotra, chief engineer, NDMC.
On being asked what the time frame for the repair was, he said "it would take some time. At least 4-5 days." The other side of the road is no better. There are several potholes on the road and those walking on the footpath cannot escape the dirty water splashed by vehicles.
"The road is in a real bad shape and nothing is being done about it. We land up having a jam near the red light everyday (which has the Sai Baba temple on its left). It is inconvenient for commuters," said Bimal Chaddha, who commutes through the route daily.