Panipat-Jalandhar 6-laning picks up pace

Tribune News Service

Advertisement

Karnal, January 17

With 72 days left for the deadline to complete six laning of the Panipat-Jalandhar stretch of National Highway-1, construction work has picked up pace.

As per sources from Soma Isolax Private Limited, the firm contracted to six-lane and maintain the Panipat-Jalandhar stretch; the project would be completed within the time fixed by the Supreme Court.

The construction company had to build 71 flyovers, five viaducts, 44 underpasses, 58 pedestrian underpasses and eight railway overbridges from Panipat to Jalandhar, out of which around 125 structures are completed till now and work on 10 other structures is in its final stage and would be finished by the end of this month.

As many as 36 flyovers are to be constructed in Karnal, Kurukshetra and Ambala districts, out of which around 22 flyovers have been opened to public and the work on the remaining is going on at full speed.

With the Supreme Court’s order, Soma-Isolux has shifted its toll plaza from Samanbahu to Bastara village in Karnal district and has hastened construction work considering the looming deadline. On May 2009, Soma-Isolux started the construction work on the project for the six-laning of Panipat and Jalandhar highway and had to complete the same by November 2011. The date of the project was extended to March 2012 and later extended to March 31, 2015.

Raj Kumar Juneja, a Sector 8 resident, said the company had to install streetlights on the flyovers, so that commuters did not face any difficulty, but due to the repeated delay in construction work and incomplete flyovers, commuters have been facing a lot of inconvenience and several people have lost their lives in accidents on this stretch.