PUNJAB CM SETS UP COMMITTEE TO SUGGEST REMEDIAL ACTION IN 30 DAYS ON KILLER AIRPORT ROAD IN MOHALI

Chandigarh, September 26, 2017: Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday constituted a 4-member committee to suggest urgent remedial measures for the severely damaged killer Airport Road, already under scanner by the Vigilance Bureau, in Mohali.

The Chief Minister, on the recommendation of the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA), has directed the committee to submit its report within 30 days in the interest of the commuting public, an official spokesperson of the Chief Minister's Office said.

The committee will comprise the Chief Minister's Technical Advisor Lt. Gen. B.S. Dhaliwal, Chief Engineer National Highway PWD (B&R) A.K. Singla, Chief Engineer GMADA Sunil Kansal and Principal Scientist& Head of Flexible Pavements Division Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) Manoj Kumar Shukla.

Built at a whopping Rs 15 crore cost under the Akali regime, the 200-ft-wide road, leading to Chandigarh International Airport in Mohali, has claimed many lives and become virtually non-motorable in less than 2 years of construction. GMADA has already closed the entire 6-km stretch of Airport Road from Airport Chowk to Landran-Banur Road T-Point following a series of fatal accidents and after finding the road to be beyond repairs.

One of the major projects undertaken by the tainted former GMADA chief engineer Surinder Pal Singh, aka Pehalwan, the road is already at the centre of a technical investigation by the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI). Pehalwan is at present behind the bars in cases of corruption and disproportionate assets.

The committee set up by the Chief Minister will undertake its task without compromising the technical investigation under way by CRRI or the Vigilance Bureau probe, said the spokesperson.

CRRI, which was entrusted with the investigation in February this year, had submitted its report on July 4 and the same was examined by GMADA Engineers, who conveyed their observations to CRRI on July 21. The observations related mainly to co-relation of the executed work with the design of the road and traffic volume survey conducted by CRRI, highlighting the major cause of failure of roads and basis of suggestion of remedial measures.

A CRRI team, along with the top brass of the State Vigilance Bureau, visited Mohali on September 20 to inspect various stretches of damaged roads, which were constructed during the previous regime. The team has collected three more samples - from PR-9 200' wide road from Airport Chowk to Kharar-Banur Road, which was badly damaged, and one sample each from TDI road, Aerocity Road and NH-64 to NH-22 Road.

The spokesperson said the committee set up by the Chief Minister will analyse the report, test results and the remedial measures suggested by CRRI, expected to give its final report by mid-October, and take a final decision in this matter of the roads, as it involved a huge amount.

Meanwhile, Additional Chief Secretary Housing and Urban Development Vinni Mahajan said the ongoing investigation must reach its logical end to enable fixing the responsibility of the erring officials involved in this project, because the remedial action in terms of even repair and maintenance of damaged portion of these roads was likely to cost the state exchequer quite heavily.