Panchkula’s crater-like potholes turn commute into nightmare

The MC had started patchworks last month, but only on ‘A’ roads, and particularly the roundabouts. These patchworks that are now corroding, create worse potholes with several layers of the road scraped. The required patchworks on running roads- in between roundabouts- have not been undertaken at most of the places. All this has resulted in the roads needing re-carpeting, however even that seems like a distant dream,” said SK Naiyar, President of Citizen’s Welfare Association of Panchkula.

“No works to repair roads in other sectors have been touched upon by the MC till now. In fact, the roads are becoming due for re-carpeting which should be done only after peeling the existing level of roads to avoid facing water-logging in the houses. Presently, the level of roads is already about six inches over and above the DPC-level of houses in Panchkula and the residents are faced with severe inconvenience. The MC must initiate work now to get roads re-carpeted after due peeling, especially in the old sectors,” he added.

A spot visit by the Indian Express showed that even the roads on the roundabout next to the MC office- used everyday by senior officials of the MC, including the commissioner himself- remain ignored. The crater-like pothole, more than two-feet long, has persisted for several months, right under the nose of the MC office, but is yet to be filled.

Several other roads including those in the trans-ghaggar sectors as well as the one leading to the Panchkula side of railway station have witnessed several years of wear-and-tear and are yet to be restored.

The repairs undertaken this week by the MC, from the roads between Suraj Theatre and Command hospital, too have already started corroding.

Several other roads including those in the trans-ghaggar sectors as well as the one leading to the Panchkula side of railway station have witnessed several years of wear-and-tear and are yet to be restored.

Many citizens now stand dejected, void of hope of any improvement in the city. “Roads are lifeline of the city life. City of Panchkula was recently given status of metropolitan council, which raised hopes of citizenry for better face-lift and civic amenities. But God knows why the administration at helm of affairs is sleeping on the issues especially the broken roads almost in each sector despite having no hiccups of fund shortage. Re-carpeting on internal roads of the sectors is overdue. Not only this many vital roads like road from Housing Board Chowk to 12A, and many other like sector 20 cremation ground road are in very bad shape. With winter season round the corner I don’t think situation shall improve,” said RP Malhotra, President of Senior Citizen’s Association.

MC Commissioner Dharamvir Singh in September had told The Indian Express that the “repair work of the roads is in our post-monsoon plan,” but had not revealed any other details about this plan including the budgets, estimated time or number of works among others. He was unavailable for any comments on the matter.

Panchkula even though the youngest, claims to be the ‘most modern city of Haryana’ and has been suffering from the problem of bad roads for several years. It has been six years since roads were last re-carpeted.

While the election of an MC council and the Mayor had filled the residents of the district with hope of better problem-solving, the situation seems to have only further degraded with the residents crying foul for the missing basic necessities of a city.