New 6-lane Faridabad highway swamped by waste water

Bijendra Ahlawat

Tribune News Service

Faridabad, December 29

The Rs 3,000-crore six-laning project of National Highway-19 connecting Delhi and Agra is almost complete but waste water from a nearby village is accumulating on it, hampering the flow of traffic.

“Waterlogging due to sewage flowing in from Seekri village, 10 km from here, has been a persistent problem,” says Neeraj Chauhan, a commuter.

He said a majority of the vehicles either get stranded temporarily or have to move at a very slow pace due to accumulation of more than a foot of water near Seekri village.

A local resident claimed that the problem has been persistent on the Palwal-Faridabad stretch for the past several months. “The speed of vehicles gets reduced considerably. Many times, it results in acute traffic congestion over 200 metres,” he said.

Blaming the authorities concerned, Palwal resident Tarun Khutela said the accumulation of water in and around the highway was risky and was not expected after the six-laning of the highway for which commuters would have to pay toll tax soon.

While Dheeraj Singh, an official of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), claimed that the maintenance work had been outsourced to private company Delhi Agra Toll Road (DATR), a spokesperson of the DATR said all care had been taken to keep the highway free from waterlogging. The accumulation of water was due to the choking of the storm water drains and the problem in the sewage outlet in Seekri village. “We have written to the civic authorities numerous times, but the problem is still to be addressed,” he said, adding that the DATR had been clearing the accumulated waste water from time to time.

Virender Kardam, Superintending Engineer, Municipal Corporation, Faridabad, said the waste water matter comes under the village panchayat and not under the MC.