By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 12 Oct: District Magistrate Savin Bansal has expressed severe displeasure over long dug up roads causing undue inconvenience to the people. He today ordered implementation of a system for granting on-the-spot permissions for construction works through a single-window decision-making process to prevent interruptions and avoid repeated road digging.
In this context, the DM today held a meeting with the concerned departments and executing agencies at the Rishiparna Auditorium regarding the permissions for road cutting on various roads in Dehradun city and the district under the Public Works Department (PWD).
During the meeting, Bansal noted that roads dug up by executing agencies for construction work are not cleaned in time, causing huge inconvenience to the public besides posing a major risk of major accidents. He issued a clear warning that strict legal action will be taken against those who exceed the permitted time limits or undertake road cutting without permission. During the meeting, he also reprimanded officials from the Peyjal Nigam, UPCL, and UUSDA, as well as other executing agencies, for arriving unprepared for permission for road cutting work.
In the meeting, the DM issues several instructions regarding digging of roads and road cutting. He issued a strict message to the officials of the Uttarakhand Peyjal Nigam to include dumping zones in their estimates. He directed them to ensure completion of work within the stipulated time period and to essentially submit a certificate in this regard. He also added that road repair charges must be deposited before road cutting. He directed that the departments concerned work in mutual coordination with each other to ensure that all the work requiring road cutting are completed alongside each other so that the roads are not dug up repeatedly.
The DM also issued a warning that FIRs will be registered for digging beyond the permitted limit. He also asserted that the work on the busiest roads be done only from 10 pm to 5 am with security arrangements and signages installed at road cutting sites.
The District Magistrate further directed that the Peyjal Nigam and all other executing agencies must clearly describe the status of the dumping zone along with their construction work permissions. Additionally, all executing agencies applying for construction work permissions must provide complete information and the stipulated time period required for the works. He directed that roads must be streamlined immediately after construction, and the amount for road repairs must be deposited before road digging permissions are granted.
He made it clear that the permissions for new works will be given only after the completion of previous works. Executing agencies must keep their own personnel also on-site at construction sites.
The District Magistrate asked all departments, including electricity, the Peyjal Nigam, Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan, BSNL, etc to hold coordination meetings with each other for every project to prevent repeated road digging.
In the meeting, ADM (Administration) Jai Bharat Singh, SDM Sadar Kumkum Joshi, CO Police Anuj Kumar, Superintending Engineer PWD Mohit Kumar, and officials from UPCL, ADB, the Peyjal Nigam and Jal Sansthan, UUSDA, GAIL, and others were present.
