NH-44 elevated part to get entry, exit points at Panipat by March 15

Mukesh Tandon

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Panipat, February 28

Entry and exit points of the elevated stretch of the NH-44 in Panipat are expected to be open for the convenience of city residents by mid-March. Officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) claimed that the related work was in its final stage and the points would be opened by March 15.

Work on the two cuts — an exit point cut near Malik fuel station and an entry point cut near to Khadi Ashram on the NH-44 — was started in the July last year.

This was a long-standing demand of local residents as the ‘textile city’ is located on both sides of the National Highway-44. The NHAI had constructed a 10-km-long Panipat elevated express highway, which includes an elevated flyover, during the regime of the Congress government in 2008. The then Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, had inaugurated the elevated highway.

Though the elevated highway was constructed to ease the traffic congestion in the city, the problem remained unsolved.

Long queues of vehicles, auto-rickshaws, e-rickshaws can be seen anytime in the day near Sanjay Chowk, Red Light Chowk, Insaar Market Chowk, railway road turn, Gohana road, Sanoli road and Assandh road turn on the NH.

However, commuters got a big relief after the bus stand was shifted out to a new site at Sewah village earlier. It was also a big cause of traffic jams on the NH under the elevated highway.

Residents of the city had been demanding access to the elevated highway for a long time. After the expansion of the city on both sides of the elevated highway, the demand for opening of entry and exit points grew louder. Political leaders, too, raised the demand before the authorities concerned several times.

Finally, it was decided that openings would be made at three points on the elevated expressway – near Malik fuel station, near Khadi Ashram Chowk and near Hanu Sweets. However, later, the opening near Hanu Sweets was not found feasible.

Thereafter, the NHAI allotted a tender of Rs 2.95 crore for the opening — exit point near the Malik filling station at Sector-25 turn on the Panipat-Delhi highway and an entry point for elevated highway near Khadi Ashram on the Delhi-Panipat side.

Residents of Sectors 13,17, 18, Ansal, Eldeco would benefit the most as a majority of the industrialists and businessmen live there and they commute to their industries in Sector 29 part 1 and 2, Sector 25 part 1, 2, Jhatipur, Pasina road, etc. daily and they face traffic jams but now they can enter from near the toll plaza and then exit at Sector-25 turn near the filling station and in the evening they can again enter the elevated highway from near Khadi Ashram Chowk and move to their destination smoothly.

Aashim Bansal, Project Director, NHAI, at Ambala said the work of opening the two points on the NH-44 in Panipat is almost at the final stage. Though the deadline to finish the work was fixed as March 31, it is expected that the work would be finished by March 15 and it would be opened for commuters, he said.

The work got delayed due to the implementation of Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) by the Commission of Air Quality Management (CAQM) and the work of laying bituminous layer is not done during the winter season, he said.

Long-standing demand of city residents

• Residents of the city had been demanding access to the elevated highway for a long time as the ‘textile city’ is located on both sides of the National Highway-44
• Work on the two openings — an exit point cut near Malik fuel station and an entry point cut near to Khadi Ashram on the NH-44 — was started in the July last year
• The NHAI had constructed a 10-km-long Panipat elevated express highway, which includes an elevated flyover, during the regime of the Congress government in 2008
• Though the elevated highway was constructed to ease the traffic congestion in the city, the problem remained unresolved