Deadline for Baddi-Nalagarh road widening extended

The widening of the 36-km stretch of the Pinjore-Baddi-Nalagarh national highway to four lanes is slated to be completed by August 2025, as per the extension of the work granted to the executing company.

The work, which commenced in April 2022, was scheduled to be completed by September 2024. The letter of award was issued in September 2021 and months were lost in pre-construction activities like the payment of compensation for land acquisition and permission for soil extraction as the work could not be executed due to the non-availability of soil available for filling.

With barely 38 per cent of the financial target and 35 per cent of the physical target having been achieved in the stipulated 30-month period, the project is running behind schedule.

Around Rs 774.78 crore has been spent on the project being executed by Gujarat-based Patel Infrastructure Limited. An amount of Rs 305 crore has been spent on land acquisition while the construction cost has been pegged at Rs 469 crore.

“Since the company had taken over the project on a 37 per cent discounted rate, it was now finding it difficult to meet the expenditure. The company had been granted relaxation in the payment schedule by the competent authority of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) after examining the case,” said Anand Dahiya, Project Director, NHAI, Shimla.

The NHAI had also served a show-cause notice on the firm a few months ago, directing it to expedite the work. Of the total 36-km length, a 17.37-km stretch lies in Himachal and the remaining in Haryana. The four-lane road will have 104 culverts, 16 minor and five major bridges. While the work to construct major structures like a flyover and bridges is in various stages, these will take another nine to 10 months to be completed.

Since this highway connects the state’s industrial hub of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh to Haryana and Punjab, its widening is utmost necessary as more than 30,000 vehicles ply on it on a daily basis. A road is eligible for widening to four lanes after it attains the 20,000 passenger car unit norm and given the high volume of traffic on the road, the need for its widening was felt.