Chandigarh, March 27 -- The Aam Aadmi Party's ambitious mega road repair programme, aimed at overhauling nearly 30,000 km of link and main roads ahead of the 2027 assembly polls, has run into turbulence, with contractors slowing down or halting work citing a sharp spike in bitumen prices triggered by the ongoing West Asia conflict. In one of the largest infrastructure pushes in recent years, the state government had cleared a plan to repair and upgrade an additional 18,000 km of roads by March 2026. This is over and above the ongoing works on 12,000 km of link and main roads being executed by the Public Works Department (PWD) and the Punjab Mandi Board. Punjab recently received Rs.3,000 crore from the Centre under the 'Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment' scheme, and a substantial portion of this amount has been allocated towards strengthening road infrastructure across the state. Such is the urgency of road repairs ahead of the next year's polls that PWD minister Harbhajan Singh is monitoring daily progress. However, ground-level execution is facing challenges as the cost of key raw materials, particularly bitumen, has surged significantly. Contractors claim that bitumen prices have increased by around Rs.5,000 per tonne in the recent two weeks, along with a rise in light diesel oil (LDO) and furnace oil prices, which have severely impacted the viability of projects. A Jalandhar-based contractor, who has more than five road contracts to his kitty, said that the sudden escalation in bitumen prices due to the Middle East situation has disturbed cost calculations. "Bitumen prices are likely to increase further to Rs.10,000 per tonne in the next few days. Rates quoted earlier are no longer sustainable, and many contractors are finding it difficult to continue work without revisions. We are just waiting with hopes of things getting normalised," said the contractor, requesting anonymity. According to a senior official from the PWD department, the government is aware of the matter and is taking steps to mitigate any shortfall. "An executive engineer has been appointed to monitor bitumen supply being produced in Guru Gobind Singh Refinery in Bathinda," the official, who didn't wish to be named, added....