Underground cabling work carried out by Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (JBVNL), which had badly damaged the 5.5km road connecting City Centre to Barwaddah, has laid bare the lack of coordination between the government departments.
Amrendra Saha, the executive engineer of road construction department that had finished widening the key stretch in 2018, lodged a complaint with the district administration and the department headquarters in Ranchi against JBVNL last month.
JBVNL is carrying out the underground cable-laying work as part of its ambitious Jharkhand Sampurn Bijli Achhadan Yojana.
Under the plan, the state power transmission company will lay 125km underground cables in Dhanbad through private agency JSP Projects at a cost of Rs 331 crore.
So far, around 35km of underground cabling has been completed. The remaining work is expected to be completed in the next six months.
Talking to The Telegraph on Thursday, Saha said: “We have brought the issue of damage caused to the road in several places, including the police lines and Hirapur, to deputy commissioner (DC) Amit Kumar. We have also written to our headquarters in Ranchi requesting their intervention. We are yet to get a response.”
Sanjeev Chaurasia, owner of crockery utensil store in Hirapur, said the entire stretch from Park Market to Court Mor and Court Mor to SSLNT College had been badly damaged due to the cabling work.
“Even the parking lot of a children’s park has been damaged, leading to frequent accidents,” he said.
President of Federation of Dhanbad Zilla Chamber of Commerce and Industry Rajesh Kumar Gupta said even the narrow stretch connecting Golf Ground to Housing Colony Road had been dug up.
“It is causing a lot of inconvenience to the commuters. We think the agency should do a bit more planning before carrying out the cabling work and immediately and fix the roads immediately after the cables are laid,” he added.
General manager of JBVNL (Dhanbad) Pratosh Kumar said the issue had not been brought to their notice.
“The agency should ensure that the damaged roads are repaired as soon as possible. We will look into the issue seriously,” he said.
DC Amit Kumar also promised to look into the complaint and do the needful
The road from City Centre to Barawaddah was broadened by road construction department during the 2016-18 at a cost of Rs 34.71 crore with the help of contractor Ms Daroga Pradhan.
The underground cabling work is being carried out by JBVNL in six Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad, Ramgarh, Basukinath and Deoghar at a cumulative cost of Rs 1,270 crore since November last year.
