PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE / Dehradun
The Dehradun district administration on Tuesday launched a time-bound drive to improve road infrastructure and street lighting, with all roads in the city targeted to be made pothole-free by October 30. Dehradun district magistrate Ashish Chauhan has directed the concerned agencies to begin large-scale road repair work from September 15, after the monsoon period. Construction agencies have completed surveys of roads in their respective areas, while the tendering process is underway.
The Public Works Department (PWD) superintendent engineer Ompal Singh said that patchwork and permanent road repair work would begin from September 15. He said that bitumen and other required material would be used to ensure a permanent solution instead of temporary repairs. “The aim is to make the city pothole-free by October 30,” he said.
Alongside road repairs, the Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) has intensified efforts to restore faulty street lights. The civic body has 1,14,171 street lights under its jurisdiction, with 169 complaints of faulty lights currently reported. As many as 40 teams have been deployed across different areas to address the complaints, repair defective lights and replace them wherever required.
On Tuesday, the teams carried out repairs at several locations, including Mussoorie Diversion, Badowala, Survey of India campus, Kamla Palace-Shimla Bypass, Haridwar Bypass, Sahastradhara Crossing-IT Park Road, ISBT-Niranjanpur, Darshan Lal Chowk, Subhash Road-Race Course and Fawwara Chowk-Nehru Colony.
The district administration has also formed separate task forces comprising 20 district-level officers each to monitor street lights, garbage points, motor roads, food safety and electricity theft prevention. The teams are conducting field inspections at night to assess the ground situation and identify problems.
The officials are being directed to immediately share the Google location and photographs of issues found during inspections with the concerned departments to ensure prompt action. The administration is monitoring the daily reports of the task forces and directing departments to resolve identified problems on priority.
The administration said that the combined approach of road repairs during the day and night-time monitoring is aimed at improving traffic and lighting arrangements across the city.
