Agra: A major scam has come to the fore with regards to the landscaping of inner ring road . The officials of Agra Development Authority (ADA) allegedly submitted inflated bills worth lakhs of rupees who were tasked with planting trees along the 10.5-kilometre stretch that was developed two years back.As per the standard guidelines of the Indian road congress, a plan was chalked out for plantation trees on both sides of the inner ring road in 2016, but the work never materialised. Maintenance work of the stretch was also neglected, and because of this the sides of the road have sunk in due to loose soil.ADA’s vice chairman Radhey Shyam Mishra has written to the state government for suspension of an assistant engineer and sought investigation against the chief engineer.“The assistant engineer and chief engineer concerned with the construction of the inner ring road are responsible for damages on inner ring road. Sub-standard works were carried out. There is hardly any greenery on sides of the road, which was mandated under the landscaping plan. In the entire matter, a recommendation has been sent to the state government for action against the concerned officials.”The development came after chief minister Yogi Adityanath received complaints of major damages on the inner ring road and constituted a two-member committee to probe the matter.According to sources, the investigation team comprises of chief engineer level officer of Public Works Department (PWD) and the irrigation department. The committee will conduct a spot inspection next week and access documents related to construction of the inner ring road.K Rammohan Rao, chairman of the ADA said, “The committee to probe inner ring road project has been asked to provide a report on its finding in next two weeks. After this, further action will be taken”.Under the landscaping plan variety of large tress, including rangoon, creeper, ashok and neem etc were proposed to be planted at the 10.5-km stretch, which connects Yamuna expressway and National High - 2 at Kuberpur with Fatehabad road.Sources said, fake bills of expensive trees purchased were produced to extract funds. However, at some places kaner trees were planted to showcase the work done under the landscaping project.The landscape work of the 10.5 kilometre road is part of a three-phased 21-km inner ring road project with an investment of around Rs 880 crore to ease traffic flow in the city. The road was developed during the erstwhile Samajwadi Party government.

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