Heavy rush of tourist vehicles chokes Kalka-Shimla highway

Ambika Sharma

Solan, June 17

With an intense heat wave sweeping the plains, more than 50,000 tourist vehicles crossed the Kalka- Shimla highway this weekend.

Though a majority of these tourists were headed for Shimla, a large chunk of them also made their way to Kasauli and Chail to escape the scorching heat in plains.

The NHAI has engaged labour for repair, maintenance and construction of the highway and at places only a single lane is available for the vehicular traffic. The police faced a Herculean task in ensuing smooth flow of the traffic on the highway.

Places where the traffic has been diverted through a single lane in view of the rapair work become traffic bottlenecks and vehicles moved at a snail’s pace.

The task of manual toll collection at inter-state barrier near Parwanoo has further compounded the problem of traffic as queue of vehicles line up within no time which also impedes the flow of vehicular traffic.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Solan Gaurav Singh said that more than 100 policemen have been deputed to man the traffic on the highway round the clock. Additionally, seven motor- cycle borne patrolling teams are also continually monitoring the traffic scenario from Tipra to Shalaghat.

The four-laning of the Kalka-Shimla National Highway has nearly doubled the traffic inflow on the road as travel time has been curtailed and visitors enjoy driving on wide roads. This has, however, hassled the locals who get stuck up in the traffic even for shorter journeys.

“It took me over an hour to reach Solan from Dharampur on Sunday as there were hundreds of vehicles on the road which hampered the movement of traffic. It barely takes 20 minutes to travel on an ordinary day,” said Vijay, a Dharmpur resident.