The Times of India              31.01.2014       

Stadium work resumes, MC assures completion by 2015

LUDHIANA: Given the inordinate delay in the completion of the Pakhowal Road Indoor Stadium project, the municipal corporation officials has finally declared to complete the project by 2015. After much hurdle, the project would finally gain momentum on Friday with the floating of the tender for the phase II construction of the stadium, inviting interested companies to come forward. After the finalization of the company, the Rs42 crore project would be initiated by June.

Phase II of the project includes wiring of the building, bidding for shops, air conditioning, fabric sheeting on the roof, implementation of fire fighting equipments, installation of lifts and other such work.

While the civic body claims of completing the phase II construction in 15 months, past instances of missing several deadlines in the project, leaves a serious doubt about the declaration. The project has faced a number of hurdles from various corners ever since its construction began after a wait of seven long years.

The project was proposed in 2003, however, due to various hiccups it was stopped midway in 2007. The construction resumed in 2011, and since then various deadlines were proposed by the MC, but it failed to near its completion.

MC notifies encroachers

The MC has begun work of removing encroachments in the city, by issuing notices to the defaulters. The initiative comes after a high court order to act against the encroachers. A total of 1,700 encroachments are to be removed.

In all, 30 such notices were issued to the defaulters in all the four zones of the city. The notice serves the encroachers with their last chance to remove the illegal encroachments themselves. While the encroachers have been served with a chance, the civic body has made all the arrangements on its parts. The major reason for MC's failure in the past has been removed with the addition of another 300 police personnel to the previously 53 personnel in the squad. Concluding that encroachments are the major reason accounting for the traffic snarls across the city, the high court had issued an order to take action against such encroachments.