Road cave-ins: Dewan tears into Ludhiana MC, says governance collapse has turned ‘Smart City’ into ‘Hell’

Ludhiana, July 12, 2026: Coming down heavily on the Bhagwant Mann led AAP government, former District Congress Committee, Ludhiana (Urban) president and ex Chairman of the Punjab Large Industrial Development Board, Pawan Dewan, has castigated the Municipal Corporation, Ludhiana, for its ‘horrible’ functioning. He said the city’s shattered and broken roads have now earned the disgraceful tag of ‘killer roads,’ with accidents being reported daily from various areas. Dewan declared that under the present regime, Ludhiana has been reduced from a proclaimed ‘Smart City’ into a civic ‘Narak’ (Hell), where apathy and collapse of governance have turned everyday commuting into a life threatening ordeal.
Referring to yesterday’s incident of a road cave in near the abandoned Ludhiana City Centre project in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Dewan said it was nothing short of a civic disaster. “Just ten days ago, road at the same stretch collapsed, which exposes the utter negligence of the MC,” Dewan said in a statement after personally visiting the affected spot. “I was shocked to see that the entire area where the road has caved in resembles a living hell, where even someone passing through could meet with a fatal accident,” he said. 
Squarely holding the officials of the B&R (Buildings & Roads) Branch of the Municipal Corporation responsible for the pathetic state of roads, Dewan said, “With the very first rain, the road in question split into two parts. Across the city too, the condition of roads is terrible. This is an extremely shameful state of affairs.”
Further, citing the recent road cave in near Jhandu Chowk, Dewan pointed out that the situation is equally perilous across the city, particularly on Pakhowal Road. Charging officials of the B&R Branch as the main culprits, Dewan said, “The B&R Branch has allowed work to be carried out with substandard materials,” while demanding a high level probe into the matter. He further demanded that the concerned contractor be blacklisted. “All those responsible for these incidents, which are causing accidents, endangering lives and leaving many injured on a daily basis must be taken to task immediately,” he asserted.
Further venting his anger on the disastrous functioning of the Ludhiana MC, Dewan said that while Ludhiana carries the tag of ‘Smart City,’ the ground reality reflects nothing less than a ‘Hell City’. He added, “Ludhiana has been reduced to a city of potholes. The MC lies fast asleep like ‘Kumbhakarna’, paying no attention to the crumbling roads. Huge billboards boast of thousands of kilometers of roads being relaid, yet stretches of barely 600 meters remain riddled with potholes – untouched and unrepaired. One fails to understand why the Municipal Corporation even exists if it cannot solve the basic problems of the people.”  
Dewan demanded a thorough investigation into the matter besides initiation of strict action against B&R officials responsible for the lapses. “The contractors, who build roads with substandard material, must be blacklisted and penalties should be imposed on them,” he said, while adding that the road that has caved in must be repaired without delay to provide immediate relief to commuters.
Among others senior Congress leaders Inderjit Kapoor and Advocate Sandeep Arora were also present on the occasion.