Double whammy for residents of VIP Road in Zirakpur area

More than a month after the Zirakpur Municipal Council and the district administration assured residents of laying a sewer line alongside the VIP Road, the work remains unfinished even as road users and those living in societies nearby continue to face inconvenience.

The damaged road has become a major concern for area residents. Pits, debris and construction material lying on one of the sides where the sewer work is underway has made the road narrower.

Residents of Penta Homes, a housing society along the VIP Road, lamented that overflowing sewers led to sewage stagnating on the roadside. The already narrow road had become narrower with heaps of earth, construction material lying on the road, worsening the traffic situation on the stretch, they added.

Paver blocks on the stretch from Dominos Chowk to Skyline Park were removed to replace the sewer line and were kept on the roadside. The VIP Road is already riddled with potholes.

The task of laying a 2-km long pipeline by the Punjab Water Supplies and Sewerage Department at a cost of Rs 2.65 crore seems to be unending.

“Mohali ADC (UD) Anmol Singh Dhaliwal had visited the site to review the progress of work in February and promised that the work would be completed in 15 days. However, the situation continues to be troublesome to this day,” said Suruchi Kumar, a resident of Penta Homes.

While 1.3 km of pipeline has been changed, the work on 700 metres is pending. The existing pipeline was 15 years old and proving to be insufficient to cater to the needs of residents with frequent blockages, overflow and leakage being reported from the area. Now, pipelines of different sizes are being laid, but nobody knows when the work will be completed.

Zirakpur MC officials claimed that the work was in its final stage.

Chandigarh