On dharna for 450 days, villagers demand shorter route to Hisar

Deepender Deswal

Hisar, May 4

The state authorities have failed to resolve the issue of connectivity of Hisar town to Talwandi Rana village located on the Barwala-Chandigarh National Highway (NH-52) even as residents, under the banner of the Road Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, have been sitting on a dharna for about 450 days.

The issue snowballed into a row when the old road, which connected Hisar town to Tanwandi Rana and the Barwala-Chandigarh highway, a 7-km-long road, was closed by the district administration after some patch of this road was annexed for the airport expansion plans.

After the closure of this road, the distance between Hisar to Tanwandi Rana village increased to about 20 km as the villagers had to take the bypass road to reach Hisar town. It also had a cascading effect on other commuters and villages located on the Barwala-Chandigarh highway for travelling to Hisar town as the overall distance increased by about 10-12 km.

Villages located close by to Hisar town, including Tanwandi Rana, Juglan, Dhansu, Dhiktana, Bahbalpur, Bahbalpur, Butana, Rajli, were the worst-affected as they have to take diversions to first reach the bypass road on the Barwala-Chandigarh highway and then take the bypass road to reach Hisar and vice-versa.

Thus, the residents of these villages started a dharna under the Road Bachao Sangharsh Samiti on the bypass about 2 km from Talwandi Rana village and demanded a direct connectivity to the town.

Om Prakash Kohli, who is leading the dharna, said they had been sitting on dharna for about 450 days and would not budge till their demand is fulfilled. “We have held several rounds of meetings with the district administration and the top functionaries of the state government. Recently, we met Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini to raise our demand. We have got some hope as the Chief Minister has given his nod for the proposal of a shorter route to facilitate the affected villages,” he said.

Kohli said they had demanded a road from Tanwandi Rana to Hisar town close to the outer side of the airport. “The state government needs to acquire some portions of the land on this patch. After construction of this road, the distance between Tanwandi Rana to Hisar town will be reduced to about 10 km instead of the existing about 20 km via the bypass road,” he said.

Manohar Singh, a resident of Dhansi village, said the proposed shorter route would save distance and time not only for the directly affected villages but for all commuters travelling to Hisar via the NH-52 (Barwala-Chandigarh highway). “There is a limit of 45 km for the bus pass facility and many villages located near Barwala town like Siwani were stripped of the bus pass facility too due to the increase in distance. The shorter route will benefit students from many villages visiting Hisar for studies,” he said.

Bypass road is 13 km longer

• The old road, which connected Hisar town to Tanwandi Rana and the Barwala-Chandigarh highway, was 7-km-long road
• After the closure of this road, the distance increased to about 20 km as the villagers had to take a bypass road
• It also had a cascading effect on other villages located on the Barwala-Chandigarh NH during their travel to Hisar as the distance increased by about 10-12 km