Several road projects in the district have come to a standstill due to an acute shortage of bitumen, with officials blaming the supply crunch to disruptions caused by the rising tensions in West Asia.
Road works covering around 283.8 km and worth Rs 266.65 crore have been affected. The shortage has not only stalled ongoing projects but has also halted several works that were on the verge of completion.
Bitumen, a petroleum by-product, is a key material used in road construction by the Public Works Department (PWD). Department officials said efforts to procure bitumen from refineries in Panipat, Bathinda and Mathura have yielded little success. Attempts to import the material are also underway, but there is no clarity on when supplies will arrive.
Among the worst-hit projects are two major road works in the Israna constituency spanning 39.24 km and worth Rs 95.96 crore. These include the 24-km four-laning of the Panipat-Safidon (SH-14) road, estimated at Rs 86.96 crore, and the 15.24-km Jagsi-Safidon stretch of the Meerut-Sonepat-Gohana-Safidon road, valued at Rs 9 crore.
Besides these, road projects covering 115.19 km and worth Rs 84.70 crore in the Israna constituency have also been stalled.
In Panipat constituency, road works covering 64.30 km with an estimated cost of Rs 56.64 crore have been hit by the shortage.
Similarly, projects spanning around 65 km and worth Rs 29.35 crore in the Samalkha constituency have also been put on hold.
A senior PWD official said bitumen, a by-product of crude oil refining, was readily available before tensions escalated in West Asia. Much of the supply was imported from Middle Eastern countries, but the conflict has severely disrupted availability.
PWD B&R Executive Engineer Savit Pannu said several road projects were nearing completion but had to be halted due to the shortage. “We have been trying to procure bitumen from the refineries at Panipat, Bathinda and Mathura, but production is almost nil. As a result, we are not getting the required supply," Pannu said.
He added that the department was also exploring imports, but it was uncertain how long the procurement process would take.
