Panchkula: Surajpur-Skukhomajri bypass likely to see light of day

Sanjay Bumbroo

Advertisement

Panchkula, May 8

The 7.7-km Surajpur-Sukhomajri bypass is likely to see the light of day as the Senior Divisional Engineer, Northern Railway, has given instructions to the Deputy Chief Engineer for taking appropriate action.

The directions came after the president of the Shivalik Vikas Manch, Vijay Bansal, served a legal notice on the authorities concerned on April 13 demanding that the rail traffic on the Chandigarh-Kalka track be stopped so that two railway underpasses could be constructed to complete the bypass.

The Senior Divisional Engineer also told the Deputy Chief Engineer that it was felt that the work on underpasses could not commence due to temporary managements and non-submission of procedures by the department concerned. He said in such a situation, it was necessary to make a policy to complete the work soon. Bansal alleged that the bureaucracy was dominant due to the weak leadership of the BJP government at the Centre and in the state. He said owing to the non-construction of two railway underpasses, the project cost had increased by Rs 10 crore. He said it would also take more than 24 months to complete the project only because of the negligence on the part of the officers concerned and the government. Now that the Railways has got into action in view of the legal notice, it is expected that this problem will be resolved soon, he added. Bansal said the trains coming towards Kalka railway station needed to be stopped for a week and their routes shifted to Chandimandir station or some other option should be worked out. He said the construction of both railway underpasses on the bypass cannot be carried out due to the movement of trains and the people were not able to take advantage of this bypass built at a cost of about Rs 90 crore.

He said in 2007, then HUDA had acquired 232 acres of land for constructing the bypass and he had demanded that the NHAI should construct the road and there should be no toll plaza on the bypass. He said in order to expedite the construction of this bypass, he had filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Punjab and Haryana High Court on April 30, 2014, after which the court had directed the state government to immediately start road construction. On September 22, 2015, the Union Ministry of Transport and Highways had also ordered the Chief Engineer of the Road and Surface Transport Ministry to take immediate action.

Pinjore to get rid of traffic jams

With the completion of the Surajpur-Sukhomajri bypass, the Pinjore town will get rid of traffic jams as hundreds of trucks going to the Baddi industrial area in Himachal Pradesh cross the town daily.