Bhakra-Thanakalan road to be upgraded at Rs 3 cr cost: Kanwar

UNA, MAY 21

Rural Development Minister Virender Kanwar today said the Bhakra to Thanakalan road would be strengthened and double-laned in view of the increasing traffic and rush of tourists coming to the Gobind Sagar Lake in Una district.

Addressing a public meeting in the Mandli panchayat of the Kutlehar Assembly segment, the minister said a sum of Rs 30 crore would be spent on the road.

Kanwar said the survey for the construction of a bridge over the Gobind Sagar Lake, linking Mandli and Lathiani villages, was complete and had been sent to the Union Ministry of Roads and Surface Transport for sanctioning. The bridge is part of the NH 503-A, connecting Amritsar with Bhota in Hamirpur district, passing through Una, Mandli and Lathiani. The highway will be complete only after the bridge between Mandli and Lathiani is constructed.

Kanwar said the state government had tapped the tourism potential of the Kutlehar Assembly segment in the last four and a half years, adding that paragliding from the Solasingi mountain range and adventure water sports activities in the Gobind Sagar Lake near Androuli had been initiated. He said an ethno botanical garden was being developed in Androuli village.

He said a 180-km-long network of old pipes had been augmented in about 150 villages of Kutlehar segment to ensure that drinking water reaches all households.

Besides, he said water sources had been strengthened at a cost of Rs 200 crore in the segment. Kanwar dedicated to the public developmental works on which a sum of Rs 45 lakh had been spent in Mandli, Tihra, Talai, Sanhal, Dohak and Changreri villages.