Work on Smart City projects have resulted in the demolition of the historic Surajpol darwaza. This incident occured late night today and before any action could be initiated, a major section of the centuries old building had collapsed.

The Surajpol darwaza,which houses the Surajpol police chowki has always been a historic landmark for Udaipur. It is being assumed that the collapse of the Surajpol darwaza is a result of the renovations on Surajpol circle.

Since the time that the renovations on the busy Surajpol circle have been going on, people have resisted and approached the administration and Nagar Nigam to take corrective action.  However, as the entire city is bearing the burden of the Smart City project work, the collapse of the Surajpol darwaza seem to be the last straw.

It is being assumed that maintenance work and hurried drilling of sections in the building has resulted in the collapse of Surajpol darwaza.

Gaurav Pratap Singh, local councillor of Surajpol, in an interview with Udaipur News said that he spoke to the engineers who are supervising the smart city work in this area.  The engineers, as per Gaurav, said that no work was initiated on the Surajpol building. They confirmed that the building has collapsed due to being old and weak.  He added that the engineers said that they were just removing the stones and doing maintenance tasks.

UT Editors Note | Smart City works causing problems in the city

Plenty of complains are coming in on a daily basis, since the smart city works have begun in the city.  While most of the complains are baseless since when public works begin, there are bound to be some disturbances in routine and routes as well as inconvenience to residents.

However, many complains are related to the quality of work and the unplanned execution of the projects, especially the sewerage works.  Technical faults in laying sewerage lines across many locations in the city has resulted in the work being repeated, inconvenience to the residents and specially the shop keepers.

Bapu Bazaar, the main shopping area of the city, has been dug up in an unplaned manner and the shopkeepers, who have anyway lost earning opoprtunities, are continuing to be harassed by the way the smart city work is progressing.

The initial laying of the sewerage pipes has not been done properly and sewerage waste is choking the main lines and causing overflow on the roads.  The roads that have been constructed over the new sewerage lines have not been constructed properly. Contractors from L&T give the project completion certificates and there invoices are settled. It has been alleged in the past that local leaders and administrative officials have approved the work done without considering the merit of quiality and technical finesse.

Examples

The Hiran Magri road, which is being cited as the model road, has witnessed paver issues.  The initial monson rains have exposed the poor quality of work. Rain water is accumulating and there is no proper drainage.

Bylanes of areas in the walled city are once again facing problems, inspite of the work in some areas having been completed just before the lockdown. Even when the unplanned lockdown kept the work stuck midway, the residents were facing commuting issues and infection problems (drainage and sewerage were left open).  IN Bohrawadi, the sewerage tanks are choked up. When the municipality was informed, a team was sent and they cleaned the sewerage, just to see that the same problem recurred within 48 hours.

Construction on the main road outside the Udaipur Krishi Mandi is being done at night.  Technical faults have agains resulted in the rain water to accumulate. Plying of heavy vehicles on this road will damage the road and the process will begin once again.

UdaipurTimes takes this initiative along with like minded local channels and public representatives to take up the case with the Nagar Nigam.