Ludhiana: A severe planning lapse by municipal corporation officials has come to light on the Shivpuri-Karabara Road in the North constituency, where a newly laid 900-foot water pipeline had to be uprooted after workers discovered a functional 8-inch iron pipeline already existed at the exact same spot.The blunder has exposed how field estimates are prepared from desks without conducting mandatory physical site surveys.The project dates back to November 2024, when a sub-divisional officer (SDO) and a junior engineer (JE) prepared an estimate of approximately Rs 8 lakh for the stretch. Before the work could begin, those officials were transferred, leaving the execution to a new team.The replacement staff went ahead and laid the new 6-inch pipe, only discovering the pre-existing, larger 8-inch line while trying to make the final connections.Upon being informed of the situation at night, executive engineer Kamal Ram ordered a thorough field check. Once the existence of the older line across the entire stretch was confirmed, he directed the team to halt operations, dismantle the newly laid pipeline, and return the pipes to the department store.While the executive engineer confirmed the incident and reported it to senior officials for action, he claimed the financial loss was minimal. He stated that the new pipe was completely removed, except for a very small stretch where it was genuinely required to fix a persistent leak that had been damaging the road. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had previously objected to that specific leakage.Commuters bear the bruntMeanwhile, local residents are bearing the brunt of the administrative oversight. The unnecessary excavation has left the busy road heavily dug up, forcing commuters to navigate thick mud and dust. Local residents noted that if officials had checked the ground realities beforehand, the road construction would not have been delayed by this double-digging fiasco.
