ROB at Vallah to see the light of day soon?

Neeraj Bagga

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Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 7

The advancement of the no-objection certificate (NOC) file for the railway over bridge (ROB) at Vallah to the officials of the Ministry of Defence has made vegetable growers, traders and commuters on Vallah Road hopeful.

After a delegation of the Fruit and Vegetable Traders’ Association, led by their president Parvinder Singh, met the Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt recently, requesting him to reduce the zone of 1,000 meter around the Army’s Vallah Ammunition Depot to 350 meter, there seems a ray of hope for the stalled civil work of the ROB at Vallah and construction of roads and shops in the wholesale fruit and vegetable market as Bhatt has forwarded the NOC file for the ROB at Vallah to the official concerned.

Amritsar Improvement Trust chairman Dinesh Bassi said Army officials had recommended granting the NOC to the ROB in their file forwarded to the Ministry of Defence on December 18, 2020.

“Only a minor portion of the ROB at the Vallah side falls in the no-construction zone. Almost all pier caps have been constructed on both sides of the ROB, which will have a span of about 800 meter. Once complete, it will be the maiden bowstring shape ROB in the entire city,” he said.

As per the notification issued on November 11, 2004, any construction on 1,000-yard parapet of the ammunition dump at Vallah is prohibited. On this premise, the Army in a communiqué to the Improvement Trust had directed it to stop the construction of a pillar of the ROB, as it fell within the no-construction zone of the dump at Vallah in January 2020. Before this, the Trust had applied for the NOC from the defence authorities but it did not elicit a positive response.

The construction of the ROB was aimed at providing better connectivity to people, vegetable growers, traders and commuters travelling on the Vallah road. However, their movement was frequently held up due to the railway crossing which falls on the busy Amritsar-Delhi railway line.

Situated in the vicinity of Vallah ammunition dump, surface infrastructure of the Vallah Mandi is in deplorable condition. As many roads remained non-constructed, a brief shower is enough to transform the roads into puddles. A large number of shops remained non-constructed due to the restriction.