Highway havoc: Shimla villagers fear collapse as four-lane project advances

Rajesh Kumar is a worried man. The middle-aged Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) employee spends much of his time scanning the walls and floor of his house, looking for new cracks and checking if the already-spotted fissures have become wider and deeper.

“A few cracks have become quite wide and the new ones keep appearing,” he whispers as he moves around the house, scanning every wall. “I can't share my concern with my old parents. They will be really scared,” he says softly. The elderly couple, over 80-years-old, has perhaps sensed the danger. “We might get buried alive in our house. Everything was fine until this four-lane work started,” the old woman says in a heavy voice, her back resting against the wall showing a few hairline cracks.

In gram panchayat Pujarli, located on the suburbs of Shimla Municipal limit, there are many families, like the one of Kumar, who feel the four-lane has brought nothing but misery for them. This particular panchayat is located on the Kaithlighat-Dhalli four-lane, the last stretch of the Kalka-Shimla four-lane. "Our lives have changed for the worse ever since the four-lane construction started in our panchayat. A few houses have become vulnerable, dumping of muck has damaged our farmland, and has polluted our water sources. Yet, no one listens to us," said Yogeshwar Dutt Sharma, a resident of the panchayat.

Villagers point out a collapsed school building atop an almost vertically-cut hill as proof of the destruction the four-lane has brought to their panchayat. "We told the construction company that the school building would collapse if they continued cutting the hill. They kept assuring us that nothing would happen as they had strengthened the slope. Eventually, as we feared, the building caved in," the villagers said. They further point out that the building collapsed when there were no rains. "It shows that the construction company either knows nothing about the hills, or it doesn't care at all. Because of their reckless cutting, 40 schoolchildren are now forced to study in a small rented accommodation," said the villagers. "Besides, there is no way for many people to reach their fields as the highway has bisected their homes and fields," he said.

For the people living towards the valley side, muck dumping has caused loads of problems. Vina Mehta, for instance, struggles to sleep at a time when it starts raining. According to her, the muck has led to the formation of a small lake a little above her house. "If the accumulated water gets released all of a sudden, my house could sustain heavy damage," said Vina Mehta.

Many other women, who have farmland by the side of a nullah flowing through the panchayat complain the muck has damaged their fields. "Over the last few years, our production has been hit badly. The muck has destroyed our fields, our grasslands," the women said. "And our lives as well," the women said.

Meanwhile, the construction company, SP Singla Construction, maintains that no building has suffered damage due to the four-lane construction. "The house, which has developed cracks, is about 20-25 metre away from where we are constructing a bridge. Besides, no blasting is being done at that spot," said Rakesh Jha. He further said the company had rented private land for dumping muck with the approval of the gram panchayat. "We have our own dumping site but it's currently inaccessible due to some revenue-related issue at one point. The matter will be resolved soon and we will start using the site," said Jha.