Secy apprised of condition of highways

Tribune News Service

Shimla, May 14

The state government is facing the wrath of public as the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is not maintaining the national highways in Himachal, said Chief Secretary BK Agarwal at a meeting with Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Shipping, Government of India, Sanjeev Ranjan, at New Delhi, late evening.

Apprising the Secretary about the pathetic condition of 774 km-long national highways mainly due to paucity of field staff and labour required for routine maintenance in hilly terrains of the state, he suggested that the maintenance activities of these may be entrusted to the NH wing of the state Public Work Department as deposit works of the NHAI.

He said the state PWD had adequate field manpower and infrastructure for carrying out routine maintenance. Aggarwal said that the work of four-laning of Kiratpur-Nerchowk projects (84.38 Km) had been abandoned by the concessionaire.

This national highway is the lifeline of the state leading to tourist destinations of Kullu and Manali, the CS added that the NHAI is required to expedite the re-start of the work on this project so that early completion of the balance work, which was started in year 2012, can be ensured without any delay.

He further said that the pace of work on the Nerchowk-Pandoh project (26.29 km) is very slow and requested him to direct the NHAI to expedite the progress. He also apprised him about the delay in award of Pinjore-Baddi-Nalagarh four-laning project, having a length of 31.400 km (17.00 km in Himachal Pradesh) and said work on these roads would be started at the earliest.

Sanjeev Ranjan assured the Chief Secretary that the work would be started soon.