Digging near underpass at Zirakpur triggers snarl-ups

Gaurav Kanthwal

Zirakpur, November 12

Traffic moved at a snail’s pace throughout the day on the Chandigarh-Zirakpur national highway due to the construction of sewage pits near the vehicular underpass site here.

Sewage pits

Local residents said hotels and other business establishments were releasing sewage into the road drain. Since the construction of 10-ft-deep sewage pits is being carried out alongside the road, the drain got blocked, leading to the overflow of sewage.

Road users said sewage overflowing on to the road at the construction site hampered the movement of vehicles. Construction debris piled up on the already narrow stretch also hindered the traffic flow. Long queues of vehicles from the Hallo Majra light point till the Chandigarh-Zirakpur flyover were seen from morning till evening as traffic crawled on the highway.

What hampers traffic flow

• Overflowing sewage
• Construction debris

Local residents said hotels and other business establishments were releasing sewage into the road drain. Since the construction of 10-foot-deep sewage pits is being carried out alongside the road, the road drain got blocked, leading to the overflow of sewage.

“It is a sheer harassment and inconvenience to the road users. If the state government is not serious, the court should take notice of the situation,” said RJ Lakhanpal, a resident of Baltana.

The local residents said the construction company, which had been awarded the underpass work, had refused to take care of the service lane till the project was complete. It said the maintenance of the service lane was not part of the contract. Public Works Department SDO Manjit Singh said, “The main cause of the delay in the completion of the underpass is the unavailability of raw material. Earlier, the pace of construction was slow due to the ban on mining in the state. We are working overtime to throw open the underpass, at least, on the Zirakpur-Chandigarh side by November-end.”

A resident of Maya Garden, PM Sharma, said, “It has been more than a year but there is no relief in sight. On an average, it takes around an hour to reach from Zirakpur to Chandigarh or vice versa daily. Officials of the departments concerned are in a deep slumber and ministers have turned a blind eye to inconvenience caused to the public.”

Zirakpur traffic in-charge Rajpal Singh said, “The traffic police are doing all they can to streamline the traffic. It is an infrastructural issue and policing has a limited impact on it.”