City halts with bypass project

LUDHIANA: With the work on the Southern bypass, connecting Doraha and Ferozepur road, missing a number of deadlines, the residents of the areas through which this road passes are facing problems.
The residents of Dugri Phase I and II, Sukhmani Enclave, South City, Country Homes and nearby areas have to travel through a longer route to and fro their homes and city as the authorities have diverted the traffic in many areas along the Southern bypass.
The construction of the 27-kms long Southern bypass was started in February 2010 and was to be completed by June 2011.
Initially, the deadline for the project was increased first to February 2012, then to October 2012 and then again to April 2013 and then August 2013. The last deadline is all set to be missed too. The officials are saying to complete the project by November this year.
Manjeet Singh, a resident of Dugri Phase I, says this has been causing a lot of inconvenience. "First of all, we are forced to leave for work early and secondly there is so much traffic. When going to Sarabha Nagar, we are forced to take the route via Arora Palace which lengthens the distance. We have to travel through some additional two kms, which is not at all less for a businessmen like us who have to be on time for meetings,"he added.
For Shivani Chaudhary, from Sukhmani Enclave, reaching home on time in the evening has become so difficult.
"I am a businesswoman and I also have children to look after at home. While the work holds me back sometimes, additional delay in this bypass project makes me travel about half-a-kilometer further," she asserts.
And this distance from the South City increases to around another kilometer and hence further worsens the situation.
Sameer Verma, a resident of South City, says that so much time gets wasted on the road and traffic.
"Now a days, getting late for work is nothing new and by the time I return home in the evening I feel dead tired,"he says.
However, A P S Brar, executive engineer of Southern bypass project, says that there is only some time left for the project to get completed.
"We are trying our level best that the work comes to an end by the November of this year. Some work is pending in South City and Doraha and we are trying our best to sum it up as soon as possible," he says.