Faridkot, December 9 After delay in the completion of a railway overbridge (ROB) on the Faridkot-Talwandi Bhai-Amritsar road, local MLA Kushaldeep Dhillon opened the bridge to the public on Monday. As construction of the ROB was moving at a snail’s pace in the past about three years, it had multiplied the commuters’ woes. The Faridkot-Talwandi Bhai-Amritsar road was closed since the beginning of construction work on the ROB in 2017. Besides, it also increased the construction cost from Rs36 crore to Rs60 crore. The MLA blamed the previous SAD-BJP government for the delay. “To get political mileage, the SAD had announced construction of the ROB days before the Assembly elections in 2017, but it forgot to announce and release the funds for the bridge,” said Dhillon. Besides financial constraints, political controversies and a competition among SAD and Congress leaders to take credit for the ROB marred its construction. Due to a dispute over a portion of land, specified for the bridge, the construction work was kept suspended for over one year as the PWD was not able to get the land vacated. According to the original plan, a 925-m-long and 11-m-wide bridge was to be constructed on the Faridkot-Talwandi Bhai road in the town. The disputed portion of the land was also considered in drawings and planning of the project. After the completion of more than 60 per cent of the bridge, the PWD had faced a problem in getting the possession of disputed government land. The MORTH had threatened to withdraw itself from the project and asked the state government to complete it on its own. Thereafter, the PWD had decided to cut the width of ROB in October last year.

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