Long weekend leads to traffic chaos on Parwanoo-Shimla NH

A quantum leap in the tourist vehicles on the Parwanoo-Solan-Shimla National Highway (NH)-5 during the weekend inconvenienced the commuters who had to spent hours covering about 105-km route.

Being a long weekend, a huge rush was witnessed on the highway as tourists rushed to popular destinations like Kasauli, Chail, Shimla and Barog. What added to the chaos was the diversion of traffic at vulnerable places like Chakki Mor as well as near Sanwara where landslides blocked the lanes along the hillsides. Diversion of traffic through two lanes created a chaotic scenario where vehicles queue up on both sides within no time. Since repair and restoration work is underway at landslide-hit sites, the commuters had to brave traffic snarls extending for hours.

While entering the state, the visitors were greeted with serpentine queues of vehicles ahead of toll barrier near Timber Trail Resort. “Skeletal staff deputed at the makeshift barrier was unable to cater to the vehicles lined up for long distances leaving the visitors tormented,” rued Aman, a tourist from Patiala.

According to the vehicle count maintained by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) as many as 17,381 and 19,596 vehicles entered the state from Parwanoo on August 16 and August 17, respectively. The average vehicle count for the last seven days was 16,223 though the traffic usually hovers around 14,000 on the usual days.

An official, who was scheduled to catch a flight for Delhi from Mohali, said it took eight hours while travelling from Shimla. “Despite starting at 2 am from Shimla, I reached Chandigarh at 9:55 pm, thus missing my flight. I had to take a private bus to reach Delhi,” he lamented.

While the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is bracing to convert highways having breached the 20,000 passenger car units (PCU) volume per day mark to six-lane carriageways, the officials of the NHAI said, “No such planning was underway for the Kalka-Shimla highway. This weekend presented an exceptional situation owing to a long weekend when the traffic volume reached the about 20,000 PCU mark while it usually hovered around 14,000 during the week,” remarked Anand Dahiya, Project Director, NHAI, Shimla.