Shivpuri (Madhya Pradesh): MP Minister for Sports and Tourism Development Yashodhara Raje Scindia launched theme road project in 2019.
Executive engineer of PWD, Om Hari Sharma, issued an official statement that the minister had brought 13.50km of road for the city.
Out of 13.8km, 5km was approved for a four-lane road from Gwalior bypass to Guna bypass and 8.50km approved for two lanes. The government had approved the entire 13.50km for constructing a four-lane road.
The cost of the road was revised and raised from Rs 45 croe to 65 crore. The work that began in 2019 was to be finished and handed over in January this year and handed over in April.
Nearly 6.50km of road is still under construction and is lying in a bad state.
The Guna bypass road from Badodi has been dug up, but no work has so far been done on it.
RK Infrastructure which is constructing the road has been given a free hand and the officials have never inspected the condition of the thoroughfares lying in a dilapidated state.
Locals said the dug-up road had been causing trouble to them. Besides, many commuters were injured because of the stone chips coming out of crushers.
A resident of Bakaul Barodi, Gautam Yadav, was taking a patient to a hospital during the corona pandemic. Dust rising from the dug-up road caused poor visibility and forced him to take the patient to the hospital on foot.
Bhupendra Yadav who supplies milk to various shops and to the people of the area has to face a lot of problems because of the dug-up road. As a result of dust, he has developed an infection in the eyes, he said.
When the issue was raised before Agarwal he said that he had always tried to ensure quality of the project and was dedicated to the work.
According to him, it is difficult to complete such a big project in a short time.† He also said that the pandemic had halted the work.
†A lawyer Vijay Tiwari made several allegations about the road. He also said that he had lodged a complaint to Loyakuta and EOW.
He alleged that it was because of PWD and the construction company that the project was getting delayed and there might have been several underhand dealings.
When the issue was put up before executive engineer D S Yadav he said that the work had stopped because of rain, but the road would be ready in three/four days.
Project manger Ranjeet Singh who was contacted over phone said that the work stopped because of the rain.
When the issue of dug-up road was raised he said he had been at the site and disconnected the phone.
