Government plans to denotify state highways

 Neena Sharma

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, April 5

The government is planning to denotify several state highways falling within cities and declare them as urban roads.

The move aimed at streamlining the traffic rather than circumventing the Supreme Court’s directives of banning sale of liquor  along highways.

“These proposals are required for streamlining the traffic.  It is the prerogative of the  state government to declare state highways as urban roads,” said Arvind Hyanki, Secretary, PWD.

Uttarakhand has 63 highways which are maintained by the state PWD. A proposal to denotify NH 72  is already pending with the Central Government.

Further, the state had submitted its proposal to denotify a section of the National Highway 72 (Ballupur Chowk).

This Ballupur Chowk stretch, if denotified, will provide relief to local commuters as the heavy traffic will then be routed through the Shimla bypass.

However, for this, the state will have to wait for the Central Government’s approval. “While the government can declare state highways as urban or district roads, the national highway can be converted into a state highway only after the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways approves it,” said Hyanki.

While the PWD officials say that the process of denotification will pave the way for the better traffic management, it could also provide relief to the Department of Excise.

Officials in the PWD  also debunk the claims that the denotification exercise of national highways could put an additional financial burden on the state. “We are facing a peculiar problem where the Centre has not been able to  allocate  money for the maintenance of the Lalkuan-Haldwani national highway,” he said.

The PWD is also planning to recommend denotification of the stretch to the Centre.