Residents oppose flyover plan

Rajesh Sharma

Una, March 19

While Una MLA Satpal Singh Satti has announced that the Union Government has principally given its consent to construct a road flyover in Una city to deal with the growing traffic, locals are divided over the issue.

Satti said a few months ago, he had met Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari at New Delhi requesting for a flyover in Una city in view of the increasing traffic and spurt in accidents, adding that he immediately agreed in principle for the project.

Satti said all sensitive areas where the rush was maximum, including Government College, DAV School, Indira Gandhi Stadium, main bus stand, Industrial Training Institute, rest houses and mini-secretariat would remain under the flyover, enabling safe movement of people and vehicles. He said the department was in the process of floating tenders for preparing the detailed project report of the flyover.

However, local shopkeepers and businessmen are opposing the move, saying that their businesses will be adversely affected since most of the traffic will not have access to the city. The locals have suggested road bypasses some distance away from the city towards Hamirpur, Dharamsala and Hoshiarpur.

President of the Himachal Pradesh Beopar Parishad Sumesh Sharma said it took almost three years to construct road dividers and to strengthen the highway passing through the city, during which the material stacked on roads, dust and potholes had led to huge loss of business to shopkeepers. He said the proposed flyover project would further lead to their financial reversals.

Chairperson of the Una Municipal Committee Amarjot Singh Bedi said the committee members had decided to meet the MLA to pursue him to work towards the construction of road bypasses. Local voluntary organisations have proposed to construct a bypass on the Una-Chandigarh highway at Bhadolian village towards Malahat to Hamirpur road near Kotla village and extend it further through Kotla Khurd to connect it to the Dharamsala road near Jhalera chowk, which provides access to the Una-Dharamsala and Una-Hoshiarpur roads. While the road flyover versus bypass issue in Una city is alive among the residents in person and on social media, Satti said he was open to suggestions in public interest.