Drain work poses threat to commuters in Dera Bassi

Zirakpur, September 24

Iron rods jutting out from an under-construction drain alongside the Ambala-Chandigarh national highway are posing a serious threat to road users from the Bhankharpur light points to Ghaggar bridge stretch. It has been more than six months that the storm water drain is under-construction but there is no sign of its completion anytime soon.

The unending construction work has narrowed down the road at this stretch for around 300 m, creating a major bottleneck. During traffic jams here, queues of vehicles at times extend up to the Zirakpur flyover resulting in a chaos in Zirakpur town.

The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has been moving at a snail’s pace in the construction of the two vehicular underpasses (VUP) and upkeep of service lanes in the vicinity. “Does it take more than six months to complete a drain?” asked a Zirakpur resident.

Besides causing traffic jams, the narrow stretch has become highly accident-prone due to iron rods jutting out alongside the main highway.

On Thursday night, a bike-borne newlywed couple received serious injuries after they fell on the iron rods alongside the road. After the accident, Yash Taneja and his wife were taken to a Dera Bassi hospital in an ambulance. The couple complained that poor lighting in the area was one of the reasons for the accident.