Nagpur: NMC chief Dr Abhijeet Chaudhari inspects road works near VNIT gate

Not known to be easily annoyed, a livid municipal commissioner on Monday threatened to file a police complaint against a private contractor for digging up one side of a road for laying a water pipeline and failing to take up backfilling operations at Bajaj Nagar under Dharampeth Zone of the NMC. "Complete backfilling and other repair works within 48 hours or I will lodge a police complaint against you," thundered Dr. Abhijeet Choudhari, shaking up the entire contractor lobby in the civic body.

The ultimatum came on Monday morning when Dr. Chaudhari himself stepped out to inspect the ongoing work of laying the water pipeline under the centrally sponsored AMRUT Yogna - II. The visit came after a spate of accidents were reported from the area which is frequented by youngsters and the elderly alike. A senior citizen had recently suffered serious injuries when his vehicle slipped on the dirt spread on the road and he fell down and landed up in the ICU of a hospital. The issue was also highlighted by Nagpur West MLA Vikas Thakre who criticised the sloppiness of the contractor and raised questions about safety measures during such works.

Sources said, the NMC had given the contract of laying water pipelines on 900 metre stretch to one M/s Abhi Construction. In addition to the work, the same contractor had also bagged the order for concretisation of the road under the Phase-IV of the ongoing cement road project. The contractor, allegedly, skipped the backfilling and other ground clearing related works to save time and resources when he has to strip the existing road later and take up the concretisation.

After the municipal commissioner's reprimand, the contractor hastily started to repair the damage. Lokmat Times visited the spot in the evening to see the water pipelines neatly arranged on the footpath using a crane and the area cleared of mud and debris.The backfilling work had also been taken up.

The civic body chief also pulled up the contractor for not having proper barricading at both ends of the road and told him to appoint security guards or volunteers to stand on the location. He also instructed the contractor to put up a signboard mentioning his residential address and contact number on it.

Incidentally, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court is also seized of a matter relating to laying of water pipelines across the city. The court had pulled up the authorities and told them to repair the roads dug up for placing water pipelines so that motorists and other road users do not suffer due to ongoing infrastructure augmentation works.