Construction of drains in Ranchi means trouble for everyone — commuters, vehicles and even the people involved in the construction of drains. Notwithstanding the inconvenience caused to everyone the Ranchi Municipal Corporation seems in no hurry to press the contractor or coordinate with other departments to accelerate the work that has held the city to ransom at some places.
Among the busiest streets of Ranchi and incidentally a posh locality—lalpur—is facing the most abominable situation. The street that is immeasurably used by people has been flooded with running drain water whereas the drain situated alongside the road is under-construction from past one and a half months. The once wide street now resembles a narrow lane where congestions are the order of the day since construction started.
The work in progress excuse is always readily offered by contractors to people frowning because of the problems faced in passing through the area. At lalpur the drain is being constructed from Kali Mandir to lalpur Chowk. Construction equipments and materials have invaded the space that was created for movement of people.
“What can we doIJ Even we are facing problems in construction work because of underground cables and pipelines. We have requested RMC innumerable times to seek help from electricity department and PHED however nothing happened. For past one a half month we have faced people’s ire almost daily,” said contractor Rajesh Gupta.
Construction of drain at lalpur started in June and the contractor is expected to complete the work in six months but given the hurdles and gap in interdepartmental coordination even the stipulated time would appear too little to accomplish the task. According to sources, the municipal body’s main emphasis is to make the contractor start the work so that construction of work doesn’t get affected due to Model Code of Conduct that will be come into effect during Assemble elections.
Nonetheless, the municipal body has failed to recognize the crux of the problem and is under the illusion that everything is hunky-dory wherever drains are being constructed. “I don’t think that there is any problem with underground cables between the under-construction points along the circular road,” pointed out Senior PRO of RMC, Ramkrishna Kumar.
The road connecting lalpur and Kokar is facing similar problem which is aggravated due to daily market of vegetable and meat sellers. Drain is being constructed between lalpur Chowk and Distillery Bridge but the inordinate delay has made people question the rational behind the construction work. “Vegetable sellers from both sides have occupied the street and now the drain water is flowing on the street. Traffic jam was common and now even walking has also become challenge,” said Ashwani Kumar, a septuagenarian who waiting for an auto-rickshaw for Kokar.