Nightmare on HP NH: 4 km in hour

Ambika Sharma

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Tribune News Service

Solan, June 2

A massive traffic jam greeted motorists at Barog on the Shimla-Parwanoo highway today with commuters, mostly tourists heading to upper reaches of Himachal, taking more than an hour to cover a mere 4-km distance till Solan.

A haphazardly parked truck that had developed a snag near Nagali only compounded the problem, leading to serpentine queues. 

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The Kumarhatti-Solan bypass could have served as an alternate route, but it had to be shut for road widening yesterday. This led to shifting of the entire traffic to the Barog-Solan road. A part of the chaos was also created due to the demolition of buildings under the four-laning project at various spots where traffic had to be halted for different duration throughout the day.

Rakesh Sharma, travelling from Delhi to Shimla, was dismayed at the “lack” of traffic management in peak tourist season. “The police presence is almost nil.” ASP (Solan) Manmohan Singh said they were examining the possibility of opening the alternate road at the earliest. “This will substantially ease load on the Barog-Solan route.”

Tourists have been flocking to Shimla and neighbouring areas. On May 26, 8,179 vehicles entered the state via Parwanoo and the count stood at 7,875, 7,588 and 6,230 on May 27, May 28 and May 29. It dropped to 5,590 on May 30 and rose a bit to 5,650 and 5,660 on May 31 and June 1.