Kangra rly overbridge project a non-starter

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, August 23

Four railway overbridges (RoBs) approved by the Union Ministry for Surface Transport in Kangra district have hit a bottleneck. There is a wide difference in the estimates prepared by the state PWD and the Union Ministry for Railways.

Sources here said the Union ministry had approved RoBs in Nurpur, Parore, Thakur Dwara and Baijnath. In principal approval for the RoBs was announced by Union Minister for Surface Transport Nitin Gadkari during his visit to Kangra district last year.

However, no progress has been made towards the construction of bridges that fall on the national highways crossing through Kangra district.

The state PWD had estimated that the cost of construction of Parore RoB on the Kangra-Palampur road would be around Rs 4 crore. However, the railways authorities prepared an estimate of Rs 14 crore for the bridge. Similarly as per the estimates of the state PWD, the cost of RoB in the Thakur Dwara area should again be around Rs 4 crore. However, the railways authorities have put up an estimate of Rs 15 crore. Similarly, there was a stark difference between the cost of construction estimated by the state PWD and the Railways.

SK Ganju, Chief Engineer, PWD, Dharamsala circle, admitted that there was a vast difference in estimates of the state PWD and the Railways. He said it seemed both organizations differed over the design of the proposed RoBs. “In hills, you do not need to construct RoBs with an elevation starting from the ground. In Kangra district, in almost all bridges proposed, we have to connect two hills to construct a RoB. The PWD was keeping that parametre in mind while designing the RoBs whereas the Railways was considering the elevation of bridges from the ground also that was leading to the difference in estimates”, the Chief Engineer said.

The sources here said till the state PWD and the Railways reached a mutual consensus regarding the design and budget of the proposed RoBs, the budget proposal could not be put forward before the Union Ministry for Surface Transport.

Besides the RoBs, other national highways declared by Nitin Gadkari like four-laning of the Dharamsala-Shimla national highway had also remained on papers. Sources here said till date, even the work for handing over the entire stretch of road to the national highways department was yet to start. Similar is the condition of other national highways declared in Kangra district.

The BJP has been maintaining that for the first time, the Union government had cleared new national highways worth Rs 1,700 crore in the state. They have also been blaming the state government for not being able to complete the formalities of handing over the roads to the National Highways Authority of India.

The Congress, on the other hand, has claimed that the declaration of new national highways was a political stunt.

Consensus a must

• The state PWD had estimated that the cost of construction of Parore ROB on the Kangra-Palampur road around Rs 4 crore.  However, the railways authorities prepared an estimate of Rs 14 crore
• Similarly, as per the PWD estimates, ROB, to be constructed in the Thakur Dwara area, should again be around Rs 4 crore. However, the Railways have put up an estimate of Rs 15 crore. 
• Until the PWD and the Railways reach a consensus, the budget proposal could not be put forward before the Union Ministry for Surface Transport