Bridge being built in Nangal, patients caught in traffic jams

Tribune News Service

Lalit Mohan

Dharamsala, March 24

Patients travelling for emergency healthcare services from Kangra, Hamirpur and Una districts are losing critical time in traffic jams caused due to the construction of a railway overbridge on the Una-Nangal-Anandpur Sahib road.

Santosh Sharma, who required urgent trauma care, was stuck for hours in a traffic jam. Her husband, Suresh Sharma , says that a private hospital in Una had referred Santosh to the PGI, Chandigarh. “But the ambulance carrying her got stuck in a jam at Nangal for over an hour. We were lucky that despite the delay, my wife’s life could be saved,” he adds. He says that delay of even a few minutes could prove fatal in emergency cases.

Another Una resident, Amarjit Singh, says that the traffic issue is posing an enormous challenge to commuters travelling from Kangra, Hamirpur and Una towards Anandpur Sahib and beyond.

BJP former president Satpal Satti has also taken up the matter with the Union Government. He has asked Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari and Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to expedite the construction work.

The construction of the overbridge had started three months ago. Since then, heavy traffic was diverted to Kamla road of Nangal. The work on an alternative bridge over the Sutlej is going on for two years, causing traffic congestion. Now, the overbridge’s construction had added to the existing problem.

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