The rapid increase in Covid cases and statewide lockdown has impacted the ongoing development projects of Dhanbad as migrant labourers engaged in them have returned to their native places at Bokaro, Ranchi and Bihar.

An eight lane road widening project worth Rs 411 crore and construction work of a park at Liloristhan in Katras have been impacted with lack of skilled labourers.

The highway project, a brain child of former mayor Dhanbad Chandrashekhar Agarwal, is aimed at diverting the traffic on the By pass road and thereby decreasing the load on existing internal roads of Dhanbad.

M.K. Verma, project in charge of the eight lane project being executed with the help of the State Highway Authority of Jharkhand, said,“Though around 23% of the project has already been completed but the work has been affected in one half of project from Kako Math to Binod Bihari Mahto Chowk since about a week as some skilled labourers working on the project have left to their places since the imposition of lockdown.”

‘The work on another half of the project between Binod Bihari Mahto Chowk to Gol Building, however, is going on unaffected” said Verma.

The work on the eight lane project, being carried out through two different contractors - Tribeni Construction Limited for one half from Kakto Math in Katras to Binod Bihari Mahto Chowk and another part of 8.30 km being executed through Shivalaya Construction Pvt Ltd – was suspended for more than five months between June to November last year due to a probe carried out by the state government.

The second wave of the pandemic has also affected the Rs 316 crore water supply infrastructure development work of Jharkhand Mineral Area Development Authority.

Executive engineer of Jharkhand Mineral Area Development Authority, Indresh Shukla said, “Though the project is going on at a moderate pace but we also could not accelerate the pace due to lack of labourers.”