Jhang road awaits completion

JHANG: The project of repair and improvement of a few kilometers of Sargodha Road’s urban portion, which was launched four years ago, is still not completed despite utilising huge public funds by the Punjab Highway Department.

Sources revealed that the PHD engineers in 2017/18 launched a project to repair and improve Sargodha Road’s portion from Ayub Chowk to Flood Safety Wall. They informed that the PHD district level engineers divided a few KMs construction work projects into three, A, B and C portions. Interestingly, they added, A and C portions were completed by revising the cost estimate of the project but the B (middle) portion of the road kept pending to get more funds and become a pond of dirty water after the recent rains, they maintained.

The traffic problems started increasing on the road as the General Bus Stand was also situated there, the sources told. The cracks could also be seen on the constructed portions that witnessing the use of poor quality material, the sources added.

They said that because of the allegedly slow execution of the project, the Divisional and District Development Committees had awarded roads construction new projects to the Local Government Department.

Meanwhile, the members of Jhang Chambers of Commerce and Industry, transporters and other business community also demanded the Punjab CM, the chief secretary and the C&W Department secretary to take notice of the issue. When contacted, PHD Jhang SDO Ahsan Ahmed told The News that the remaining portion of the Sargodha Road had been included in the current ADP and would be completed soon. Being a senior most sub-engineer, he had full experience and a competent team was doing work to complete the roads projects timely, he added.