Garhwal Post Bureau
Dehradun, 1 Sep: Dehradun district administration has stepped up efforts to improve the condition of the roads and street lighting in Dehradun following directions from Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. District Magistrate (DM) Dr Ashish Chauhan has assigned responsibilities and deadlines to the departments concerned for making roads pothole-free and repairing defective street lights across the city and district.
The officials informed that a major pothole-removal drive will be launched across the district on a war footing from 15 September, immediately after the monsoon period. They also claimed that the construction agencies concerned have already completed surveys of roads falling under their respective jurisdictions, while the tendering process is underway. The DM has directed all the executing agencies to ensure that all the roads in the district are made completely pothole-free and convenient for commuters before 30 October, 2026.
Alongside road repairs, the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (Doon Nagar Nigam) has also intensified efforts to improve the city’s street lighting system. There are a total of 1,14,171 street lights within the Municipal Corporation area, of which complaints regarding 169 defective lights have been received. To ensure their prompt repair, the Municipal Corporation has deployed 40 special teams in different parts of the city.
The teams are visiting the areas allotted to them, repairing defective street lights on the spot and replacing them wherever necessary. Today, the teams carried out repair work at several locations, including Mussoorie Diversion, Badowala, the Survey of India campus, Kamla Palace to Shimla Bypass, Haridwar Bypass, Sahastradhara Crossing to IT Park Road, ISBT-Niranjanpur, Darshan Lal Chowk, Subhash Road-Race Course and Fawwara Chowk-Nehru Colony, among other areas.
The administration has also put in place a mechanism for night-time monitoring of the civic arrangements. Taking an important decision yesterday, DM Ashish Chauhan has constituted separate
task forces comprising 20 district-level officers each to monitor street lights, garbage points, motor roads, food safety and prevention of electricity theft.
The officials belonging to these task forces are said to be conducting field inspections during the night to assess the ground situation and identify deficiencies in food safety arrangements, roads and street lighting. Photographs and Google location details of problems identified during inspections are also being immediately shared with the departments concerned. The objective is to ensure that the process moves quickly from identification of a problem to its actual resolution without unnecessary delay.
The daily reports submitted by the task forces would be used to ensure that the problems identified during inspections are taken up for resolution on a priority basis. The administration has adopted a two-pronged strategy, with the road repair and improvement work being undertaken during the day and civic arrangements being monitored at night.
It may be pointed out that the poor condition of roads and inadequate street lighting in several parts of Dehradun have frequently been a concern for commuters, particularly during and after the monsoon. Potholes tend to worsen during the prolonged spells of rain, while damaged roads and inadequate illumination can increase the risk of accidents and inconvenience for motorists and pedestrians.
With the administration setting 30 October as the deadline for making all roads pothole-free, the coming weeks are likely to witness intensified road repair activity across the district. The administration is also banking on regular field inspections and real-time reporting by the task forces to ensure that civic deficiencies are not merely identified but are addressed promptly.
