National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has started repairing 25.72km Bank Mor-Sindri road that was lying in a bad shape for the last four months due to development of a large number of potholes.

“The repair work is being carried out at a cost of around Rs 25 lakh through a private contractor, Indra Enterprises, and will be completed within a week,” Amrendra Kumar Saha, NHAI’s in-charge executive engineer Amrendra Kumar Saha said.

On the delay in initiating repairs, Saha said the tender process for the selection of the contractor took more time than expected. Saha, who also doubles up as the executive engineer of the road construction department, said they were also planning to carry out the repair of the new four-lane road and strengthen the 5.5km stretch from City Centre to Barwaddah soon.

“The road that connects City Centre to Barwaddah was constructed as a cost of Rs 34.71 crore. The recent underground cabling work has damaged the road in several places,” Saha said.

Mithu Chakraborty, area manager of a pharmaceutical company, expressed happiness over the launch of the road repair work.

“It was long overdue. Several sales representatives of various pharmaceutical companies have met with accidents because of the large crater that had surfaced near Ena Islampur area around three months ago. I can’t understand the reason for the such delay in initiating the repair work,” Chakraborty said.

Sarafaraz Nawaz, 42, a resident of Wasseypur, had broken his left hand and leg due after his bike hit the large crater near Ena Islampur while returning home from Jharia on September 23.

“I am happy that the repair work has been finally begun. But I am concerned over red-tape in government departments that leads to such delayed response to such urgent issues,” he said.

The widening and strengthening of the 25.72km Bank Mor-Sindri road was carried out at a cost of Rs 44.83 crore by the road construction department in 2017 with the help of private contractor Ms Balkrishna Bhalotia.

However, the road soon started developing potholes due to water-logging at several places in Ena Islampur area. In 2018, the road was handed over to the NHAI.