Zirakpur-Bathinda NH: Delay fully displayed

Rajmeet Singh in Chandigarh

Those travelling on accident-prone 215-km Zirakpur-Bathinda National Highway-64 will have to wait for another year before they have a smooth ride — that is only after the big ‘if’ is overcome. 

Already delayed by nearly four years since the initial tendering process for four-laning, the project threatens to miss yet another deadline. Reasons: delay in allotting the work and a ban by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on cutting 96,000. The cost of the project has risen from Rs 2,200 crore to about Rs 2,900 crore. Being taken up in seven parts, the project has been divided into two sections: Bathinda-Patiala and Patiala-Zirakpur. The cost of the project has risen from Rs 2200 crore to near Rs 2900 crore due to delays. Earlier scheduled to open in February 2017, its deadline was extended to June 2017. 

Conceived in 2008, the project to widen the National Highway-64 remained on paper till 2015, when things actually started moving. As per the initial plans, the wider road was to be ready by 2010-end. That would have placed Punjab among the states to have the first concrete expressway on the lines of Delhi-Jaipur corridor.

After the initial failure, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) floated tenders through the Punjab government for the project. Ultimately, the Union Minister Nitin Gatkhari laid foundation stone for four laning the project last year. This time the project comes under the engineering-procurement-construction (EPC) mode.

The NGT case

The NGT orders staying cutting of trees came on the basis of a complaint filed in April this year by Sangrur-based Dr Amandeep Aggarwal, who had requested compensatory green cover.

Dr Aggarwal argues that the lost green cover has not been compensated for. “The government’s compensatory plantation is for the Kandi area, which is far-off from the affected districts. In future at least four times the number of trees to be axed should be planted around the expressway,” he said. He wants afforestation drive of the state government verified. The case is being heard by the NGT.