‘Infrastructural works in Dehradun slow down due to polls’

DEHRADUN: Infrastructural development work in the city has been largely impacted by the upcoming elections, claim locals, with “the city’s roads bearing the brunt of it”.
Local residents have been complaining about the condition of the roads for months.
The most common issue has been the recurring patch work that affects day-to-day travel. “The same patches are dug up again, at times, for laying down a cable or to place pipes.They’ll do one task and then re-dig the stretch. We have raised the issue about the EC road several times, but with no results,” said Mahadev Verma, a grocery shop owner. Work under the Smart City project near Survey Chowk, Raipur Road and along EC Road had been completed in December. However, between the rains of last month and the impact on development work due to elections, the city roads are again in shambles.
“The stretch of Raipur road from Sahastradhara crossing to Survey chowk is in a poor shape and we haven’t seen any active efforts to repair it. The weather will be bad in the next few days as well and that will give authorities yet another excuse. It seems that elections are their only priority,” said Veronica, a city resident.
Commuters have also raised concerns about potholes, gravel patches and water-logging in the city. Patches on Haridwar bypass road and Rajpur road have also become problematic.
Similarly, work around Parade Ground has slowed down. Officials however denied any poll impact on infrastructural work.
“Projects that started before the code of conduct came into effect are going on and the work has not been hampered in any way,” said Dehradun district magistrate, R Rajesh Kumar.
Uttarakhand goes to polls on February 14 and the results will be out on March 10.