Even 17 yrs not enough for road completion!

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, November 23

It’s been 17 years and the much-awaited 17-km Kimmughat-Chakki-Ka-Morroad is still incomplete.

The work on the road was undertaken in a piecemeal manner and 1.2-km stretch is yet to be completed though it was inaugurated on April 26, 2006, by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. The plaque, however, does not mention any details of the length of the road that had been inaugurated.

A re-alignment of the last leg of this road is being undertaken now and it will require fresh clearance under the Forest Clearance Act, 1980.

Executive Engineer Sandeep Sobti said they would get the net value of trees re-examined from the Forest Department as the old value worked out in 2000 had become redundant. He said once the clearance was sought, budgetary requirement too would be worked out to complete the remaining stretch of the road.

Kasauli residents are eagerly awaiting its completion as the road will provide a shorter bypass to Chandigarh and will also make commute easy for those passing the under-construction National Highway (NH-22). Commuters will no longer get stuck in traffic jams which have become a routine affair on the Parwanoo-Shimla highway.

The first phase of the project comprising 7-km stretch was constructed in 2002 at a cost of Rs 1.06 crore, while work on the second stretch of about 8 km was completed a few years ago. Forest clearance for the remaining 1.2-km stretch which involved axing of 128 trees was secured about three years ago. The road will primarily provide connectivity to about 15 villages and will facilitate the agrarian community there. Its survey was conducted in 1978, but politicians showed no interest and the project was delayed. Its tardy pace of completion has disheartened hoteliers and flat owners who settled here in the hope of having an easy reach from Chandigarh.

“The shoddy work undertaken to concretise the stretch of road which had been completed has worsen things,” rued a hotelier. During this period, both Congress and BJP governments have completed two tenures each.

The significance of the road increased after work to fourlane the National Highway-22 began in September 2015. In 1990, after repeated requests and persuasion by villagers, Rs 15 lakh was paid to landowners whose land was acquired for the project. But it took another nine years to get the land vacated and this led to an inordinate delay in work. In 2016, railway officials objected to work being carried out near the Koti tunnel.

Long wait for Kasauli residents 

• Kasauli residents are eagerly awaiting the completion of Kimmughat-Chakki-Ka-Mor road as it will provide a shorter bypass to Chandigarh and will also make commuting easy for those passing the under-construction National Highway-22.
• Commuters will no longer get stuck in traffic jams which have become a routine affair on the Parwanoo-Shimla highway.
• The first phase of the project comprising 7-km stretch was completed in 2002 at a cost of Rs 1.06 crore, while work on the second stretch of about 8 km was completed a few years ago.