Green nod awaited, four-laning of Chd-Shimla NH to take time

Ambika Sharma

Solan, February 14

Faster travel to Shimla from Chandigarh still seems years away as four-laning work on the last stretch of 28.44 km from Kaithlighat-Dhalli awaits clearance from the Forest Department.

More land needed

• The four-laning work on the last 28.44-km stretch (Kaithlighat-Dhalli) of Chandigarh-Shimla highway awaits clearance from the Forest Department
• Since the scope was enhanced from two-way carriageway to four-lane, it required additional acquisition of land

Officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) were pursuing the case for obtaining additional forest clearance for 30 hectares.

The contract of the earlier contractor was terminated for tardy progress of work in January 2020. Since its scope was enhanced from two-way carriageway to four-lane, it required additional acquisition of land. The work was re-assigned in July last year.

The project has been divided into two stretches to speed up the work. The 17.46-km stretch from Kaithlighat-Shakral would be constructed at a cost of Rs 1,844.77 crore.

It was awarded to SP Singla Const-Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (Consortium), while the 10.98-km stretch from Shakral-Dhalli involving Rs 2,070 crore was awarded to Gawar Construction in July 2022.

NHAI Project Director Ram Asra Khural said, “The formalities for seeking additional forest clearance for 11 hectares on the Kaithlighat-Shakral stretch and another 19 hectares on the Shakral-Dhalli stretch were being completed.”

“We hope the work will begin by March as the contract has already been awarded. It will take three years for completion,” he added.

Once completed, the highway will bypass Shimla and reduce the distance between Kaithlighat and Dhalli from 40.1 km to 28.4 km. Besides decongesting Shimla city, it will also improve connectivity to Indo-Tibet border and tourist places in the region.

Four-laning of the Parwanoo-Shimla highway is being executed in four stretches. Despite a 30-month deadline, four-laning of the first stretch (Parwanoo-Solan), which began in September 2015, was completed in June 2021 after 69 months. With several additional structures having been added like two viaduct bridges, the project was still continuing.

About 70 per cent work on the next 22.91-km stretch (Solan-Kaithlighat) has been completed, the NHAI officials said. The four-laning construction work was assigned in December 2018 and was supposed to be completed in 30 months.