Dhumal feels jerks on NH,4 engineers suspended

A superintending engineer RC Gupta who retired only recently,has also been chargesheeted in the case.

The action came a day after Chief Secretary reached Shimla and summoned Principal Secretary,PWD,PC Kapoor to know the reason behind the poor maintenance of the portion of the NH -which witnesses busy tourist traffic between Chandigarh and Manali.

Inquiries revealed that a Chandigarh-based company had recently done the improvement work on the road at a cost of Rs 7.67 crore. The company had got the job done through a local contractor.

Kapoor confirmed as much. “Reports about the poor condition of the road have been pouring in for quite sometime and two separate inquiries were also done. I had also directed the chief engineer to ask the contractor to take up immediate repairs since there were lot of potholes on the road”.

Meanwhile Bhardwaj,who was on official tour to Delhi,met Dhumal on Saturday and informed that he has already initiated action against the contractor.

“Executive engineer was directed to serve a final notice to the contractor for levy of compensation to the tune of Rs 63.86 lakh even as a payment of Rs 1.20 crore stands withheld by the department as security and performance guarantee,” he reportedly told Dhumal,adding that repair work could not be completed because of the rains.