RAWALPINDI, March 11: For the last over one month, the road leading to Holy Family Hospital (HFH) has been left dug-up for reconstruction, creating immense hardship for the patients, their relatives and other citizens.

The road connecting the HFH with Saidpur Road was in a very bad condition. About one month back, its reconstruction started. However, the work was stopped midway creating further trouble to the motorists.

“The Rawal Town administration is busy in reconstructing roads in other areas,” said Sajid Mehmood, a patient in the hospital, while talking to Dawn.

“I have to lower the speed of the ambulance for the betterment of the patient,” said Mohammad Anwar, a driver of the HFH ambulance. He said the civic authority had turned a blind eye to the issue.

Tahir Siddque, another patient at the HFH, said they were facing numerous problems due to the bad condition of the road. It is also time consuming to travel on the road but there is no alternate to it.

“I am suffering from spinal cord problem and doctors have advised me to avoid jerks but travelling on this road increases my backache,” he said.

Saima Riaz, a resident of Satellite Town B-Block, put the blame on RTMA for not repairing the road and said clouds of dust arising from the damaged road added to the suffering of allergy patients.

When contacted, Rawal Town Administrator Saif Anwar Jappa said the basic reason behind the delay in the construction of the road was that the engineering department had estimated Rs4.8 million for the three-kilometre portion of the road. However, he added, half of the portion did not need reconstruction as it was in a good condition.

He said he had decided to reconstruct only the damaged portion of the road and re-carpet the remaining. “It reduced the price and now the road will be completed at a cost of Rs2 million,” he said.

The official said work on the road would be started soon and would be completed within the next two weeks. “I have directed the RTMA staff to improve the road without further delay,” he said.