Wayside amenities to come up on Parwanoo-Shimla National Highway

Solan, March 1

In a bid to facilitate commuters, wayside amenities would be developed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on the Parwanoo-Shimla stretch of the NH.

Though the state Tourism Department had developed such amenities on this highway prior to its four-laning, these were demolished to pave the way for widening of the road. Absence of such facilities was causing inconvenience to commuters.

“Since the NHAI has not handed over the highway to the state government we are unable to develop such facilities on the NH-5,” informed District Tourism Development Officer, Solan, Ratti Ram. He said that they planned to develop at least two such facilities on the Parwanoo-Solan stretch provided land was made available to them. The four-laning projects were being executed by the NHAI and was directed to consider developing such facilities by the state agencies.

“The 39-km stretch from Parwanoo to Solan, which has been four-laned, was under maintenance with private company GR Infraprojects for a period of three years. Arif Engineers is four-laning the subsequent 22.91-km stretch from Solan to Kaithlighat and will maintain it for 15 years,” informed Ram Asra Khural, Project Director, NHAI.

He said during this span the NH-5 can’t be handed over to the state. “The authority was exploring various sites to develop wayside amenities for the commuters. A site near Datiyar has been selected on the Parwanoo-Jabli section to develop facilities like toilets, cafeteria, etc. A park has already been developed at the site,” said Khural.

“Land measuring 75 x 75 m has been specially acquired on the Kaithighat-Dhalli section for creating these facilities. Being a forest area, formalities like seeking clearances were being completed,” Khural added.

In a bid to overcome the scarcity of land, several dumping sites were also being considered by the NHAI to create such facilities. Since a large chunk of muck has been generated by excavating the hills, several dumping sites have come up on the Parwanoo-Shimla highway.

“We have developed Swaran Jyanti Vatikas on the Parwanoo-Solan section of NH-5 to lend greenery to the highway. They are attracting tourists and have become halt points for their scenic beauty,” informed Balwinder Singh, project manager, GR Infraprojects, which executed its four-laning work.

Site selected near Datiyar

• A site near Datiyar has been selected on the Parwanoo-Jabli section to develop facilities like toilets and cafeteria, etc. A park has already been developed at the site
• A provision to acquire land for such amenities has been specially made on the Kaithlighat-Dhalli section, where the four-laning work is yet to commence