Traffic restored at Solan-Waknaghat stretch of Kalka-Shimla highway

Tribune News Service

Solan, September 29

Vehicular traffic on the Solan-Waknaghat stretch of the Kalka-Shimla highway is restored after more than 16 hours by the staff of ARIEF engineers.

The company was undertaking four-laning of the Solan- Kaithlighat section.

Appearance of cracks on the highway due to a landslide had led to the disruption of the vehicular traffic on Monday night around 9 pm.

Though arterial routes had been earmarked for diverting traffic going towards Shimla as well as coming from the capital town, a large number of trucks had lined up on both sides of the highway.

Officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), who were overseeing the restoration work, said earth excavation machines were deployed to remove the debris and clear the road.

Excavation on the hillside was undertaken to create a single lane for the vehicular traffic to pass through.

The Solan police diverted the traffic on the Kalka-Shimla highway through alternative routes after the appearance of cracks on the surface of the highway near Waknaghat led to the closure of the highway this evening.

Notably, the four-laning of the highway has subjected the road to reckless excavation along the hill as well as the valley side and such instances have become routine. Several such cracks have been reported in the Parwanoo-Solan stretch, where almost 92 per cent work has been completed while it was the first instance between the Solan-Kaithlighat section, where merely about 24 per cent of four-laning work had been completed till now by the AIREF engineers.