Pune firm to make DPR for saving Kullu-Manali highway from floods

Abhinav Vashisht

Kullu, April 14

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has awarded the job of preparing a Detailed Project Report (DPR) to a Pune firm for long-term planning and steps required to prevent the Kullu-Manali national highway (NH-03) from devastation by floods to in future.

The 37-km Kullu-Manali NH had suffered massive damages due to the rain calamity in July last year. The NHAI has carried out the repair works but still there are many stretches where the road lies caved in after being washed away in the floods.

Road in tatters

• Union Minister for Highways Nitin Gadkari, on a visit here last year, had said that a technical evaluation would be done for long-term planning so that such devastation was not caused in future
• Work of preparing Detailed Project Report (DPR) awarded to a Pune-based firm
• The 37-km Kullu-Manali National Highway suffered massive damages due to the rain calamity in July last year
• The NHAI carried out repairs but still there are many caved-in stretches on the road
• The work to fully repair the damaged parts of the road will be taken up along with the measures suggested in the DPR

Ashok Chauhan, Regional Engineer, NHAI, Kullu-Manali, said that the work to prepare the DPR had been awarded to a Pune-based consultant firm about a month ago. The work to fully repair the caved-in sections of the road would be taken along with the measures suggested in the DPR. He said the alignment of the NH would remain the same. The cost of the project would be known after the preparation of the DPR.

It will take many years before the national highway is completely restored, considering the fact that it has already taken about over nine months to partially repair the damaged 12 stretches having a cumulative length of 3,200 meters and the work was still underway. The work of

partially repairing the damaged portion in Raison was still pending.

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, during his visit on August 1 here, had stated that technical evaluation would be done for long-term planning so that such devastation was not caused in future and a new DPR would be prepared for its complete restoration. He had announced to provide Rs 4,000 crore or whatever amount required to restore the damaged highways in Himachal.

The entire Kiratpur-Kullu highway was widened to four lanes but the Kullu to Manali road had only two lanes. This stretch will be the only bottleneck in the strategically important four-lane road project between Kiratpur and Leh. Gadkari had said that due to the geographical strata of the region it was not easy to widen the 37-km stretch between Kullu and Manali to four lanes.

The ministry had already acquired the land for the highway widening to four lanes but later only two lanes were proposed. The minister had said that there was a river on one side and mountains and habitation on the other. However, a technical expert questioned that then why was the land acquired for the road expansion to four lanes if it was not technically feasible.

The Kullu-Manali road had become a death trap because of both way traffic. Many fatal accidents have occurred on the road, mostly due to over-speeding. The caved in portions of the NH had made the commuting more perilous. The accidents will reduce considerably if the highway is widened to four lanes.

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