‘Floods damaged 4,658-km roads & 68 bridges in Punjab’

Chandigarh: Punjab Public Works minister Harbhajan Singh ETO today informed that the recent devastating floods have caused extensive damage to 4,658 kilometres of roads and 68 bridges across the state.

Presiding over the review meeting with departmental officials regarding the assessment of losses, the Cabinet minister disclosed that under Plan Roads, 19 bridges and 1,592.76 kilometres of roads have been damaged along with R-walls and B-walls measuring 4,014.11 meters and 92 culverts.

Similarly, under National Highways, 4 bridges and 49.69 kilometres of roads have been damaged in addition to 2,559.5 meters of R-walls and B-walls and 14 culverts.

Under Link Roads, 45 bridges and 2,357.84 kilometres of roads have suffered damages along with 3,282 meters of R-walls and B-walls and 376 culverts. Apart from this, 657.54 kilometres of roads built under ‘Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana’ have also been affected.

He said that an estimated expenditure of Rs 1,969.50 crore will be required for the repair and restoration of damaged bridges, roads, R-walls, B-walls and culverts.

During the meeting, Harbhajan Singh ETO directed officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to immediately improve the condition of different roads in Punjab. He also instructed them to expedite projects that have not yet taken off.

The minister further expressed concern over recurring accidents caused by delays in repairing service roads alongside the under-construction flyovers at Mallian, Tangra and Daburji on the Amritsar-Jandiala section. He directed officials to complete this work without any further delay.