Zirakpur underpass work nearing halfway stage

Gaurav Kanthwal

Zirakpur, April 17

The construction work on an underpass on the Chandigarh-Zirakpur highway is reaching the halfway stage with both slabs ready. Punjab PWD Executive Engineer Yuvraj Singh Bindra said, “Almost 45 per cent of the construction work on the underpass is complete and the department is set to complete the project before the August deadline.” PWD officials said the work was slow-paced due to unavailability of earth for filling the approach due to mining restrictions, but now things were on track.

The underpass is being built on the Zirakpur side in an area of 450 m at a cost of around Rs. 10 crore to facilitate the movement of heavy vehicles coming from the godown area side. It will remove the permanent black spot on the highway.

Traffic lights on the spot would not be required and vehicles coming from the Zirakpur and Chandigarh side would have a halt-free movement, said an official at the site. Road users have been facing inconvenience for almost five months with traffic crawling due to congestion, but with improved traffic management the travel time has come down considerably on both sides. The work is being done by a Jalandhar-based company, Associated Engineers, under the supervision of the National Highway Division, PWD, Punjab.