After the floods: As water recedes, Panchkula begins to rebuild battered roads and bridges

Continuous heavy rainfall since mid-August has left the city grappling with extensive infrastructural damage. From collapsed bridges and landslides to waterlogging to broken roads and fractured embankments, scars of the deluge are visible even as normalcy slowly returns.Earlier this month, the heavy rain battered the bridge connecting Alipur and Khatauli villages. It caved in after the Ghaggar tributary swelled and eroded its centre. The collapse has left locals cut off from the city, forcing vehicles heading towards Khatauli to take longer detours via Mauli and Raipur Rani, or the Mattawala route.

Similarly, the Mauli–Barwala road bridge gave way completely, leading to full closure of the stretch and diversion of traffic through the Dera Bassi route.

Traffic police officials said congestion has been reported across several busy points, including Vikas Nagar naka where the road has broken as well as stretches from Barwala Bus Stand to Barwala Bypass, Sukhomajri Bypass to Nawan Nagar T-point and from Pinjore to the Parwanoo border.

In the city areas, waterlogging beneath the railway bridge near Kohni Sahib Gurdwara towards Sai Dairy disrupted traffic for days. Roads at Amartex traffic lights, Majri Chowk and the underpass leading from Industrial Area to Baltana were also submerged, some even sinking after waterlogged soil weakened underground pipes.

A section of the highway near the Jhuriwala dumping ground also collapsed, raising concerns among experts about rainwater mixing with garbage and contaminating subsoil strata.

In the aftermath, residents urged the authorities to immediately test tube well water, citing health hazards for families.

The Panchkula-Morni road, vital for connectivity to the hill region, was also blocked after a landslide. A portion of the road between Industrial Park and Barwala sank, meanwhile, also posed a safety hazard. Authorities later cleared debris and carried out emergency patchwork to restore movement.

All hands on deck

In fact, teams have since been pressed into service to carry our repairs across the district.

Public Works Department (PWD) Executive Engineer (XEN) Ashish Chauhan told The Tribune, “We had kept our machinery, manpower and supervisors ready for the monsoon season. Each minor to major landslide in the Morni region was cleared within hours. Connectivity between Morni and Panchkula was never broken even for a single day.”

He added that patchwork was already in progress on stretches of the highway leading to Morni and Raipur Rani.

Speaking about the Khatauli-Alipur bridge, the XEN said, “The middle portion was washed away by the Ghaggar. After the rains subsided, stone patchwork followed by earthwork with Water Bound Macadam (WBM) was carried out to make it functional temporarily. A permanent solution is already tendered and will begin once the monsoon fully recedes.”

This week, the Deputy Commissioner directed all departments — including the Municipal Corporation, Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran, Panchkula Metropolitan Development Authority and Haryana State Industrial & Infrastructure Development Corporation — to finish repair work of damaged roads within three days. While patchwork has been done at several locations, officials admit repairs on a few key roads remain pending.

Officials said the Ghaggar bridge near Peer Muchalla, where cracks have been observed on the embankment, itself was intact. Experts, however, warned that recurring soil settlement points to structural weakness requiring long-term rectification. Repair work on the embankment was carried out the very next day as the rain subsided.