Tourist influx on the rise, little road expansion in Kasauli

Tribune News Service

Ambika Sharma

Solan, July 20

Little expansion of roads has taken place in the Kasauli Planning Area in the last several decades despite multifold increase in tourism.

The hospitality sector has expanded across the length and breadth of the Kasauli Planning Area comprising Kasauli and its suburbs in the last two decades.

Will seek funds

Roads leading to Kasauli should be double-laned. We will try to seek funds after preparing a DPR to widen the roads in the area. ML Sharma, PWD Executive Engineer

Several resorts have been constructed on the Dharampur-Kasauli road and many more are likely to come up. Since construction is banned in the cantonment town of Kasauli, roads leading to the town are the convenient substitutes. At least 15 projects were cleared during the investor meet of 2019. Construction of these projects was at an advanced stage. This would further add to the tourism inflow.

None of the roads leading to Kasauli from the Kalka-Shimla highway has been expanded. All roads are narrow and single-lane carriageways. These are the Dharampur-Kasauli road, Dharampur-Sanawar road and the Parwanoo-Jangeshu road.

Even the recently carved Kimmughat-Chakki-Ka-Mor stretch which connects villages to the national highway near Parwanoo is a single lane unmetalled road. It is a village road used by locals to transport their agriculture produce to the nearest market.

“It is surprising that while new tourism projects have been granted permission, the government has failed to plan expansion of roads. The existing single-lane roads are not fit for the voluminous traffic that they handle,”said Ajit Singh, a Delhi resident.

Since hotels have come up along the roads, the width of the road has shrunk further as tourist vehicles are parked along the roads. Several traffic bottlenecks have emerged at such places where passage of vehicles is hindered. This causes traffic jams, especially during the peak tourist season and at the weekends.

ML Sharma, Executive Engineer, Public Works Department, Kasauli said, “Given the voluminous traffic, the roads leading to Kasauli should be double-laned. We will try to seek funds after preparing a detailed project report (DPR) to widen the roads of the area as it is a dire requirement.”

He added that since acquisition of land was a costly proposition, availability of central funds can pave way for expansion of roads in the Kasauli area.

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