Work to widen Baddi-Nalagarh highway goes on at snail’s pace

Commuters travelling on the Pinjore-Baddi-Nalagarh national highway are a harried lot as the four-laning work is going on at a snail’s pace.

The issue came up for discussion at a meeting convened by Secretary, Public Works Department (PWD), Dr Abhishek Jain at Nalagarh where the officials of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), Gujarat-based Patel Infrastructure Limited, which was executing the four-laning work, and SDM Nalagarh were present.

With barely 42 per cent work having been completed till March-end after the expiry of the 30-month deadline, the NHAI has directed Gujarat-based Patel Infrastructure Limited to speed up the work and complete it by the year end.

The contractor, however, is seeking six more months as he pleaded that there has been a delay in getting encumbrance-free land.

Frequent traffic jams on the highway are inconveniencing commuters as they have to painstakingly wait for the traffic influx to ease. Being the industrial hub of the state housing more than 89 per cent of the state’s industry, the highway witnesses the movement of thousands of vehicles daily.

The work on the highway began in April 2022 and was originally scheduled to complete by October 2024, within 30 months. Since the contractor opted for the project on a 37 per cent lower rate, he was now facing fund crunch to complete the project.

Project Director, NHAI, Anand Dahiya, while agreeing that the pace of work was slow, said in a bid to facilitate the contractor his payment schedule has been re-scheduled and he has been directed to mobilise men and machinery to meet the deadline. “Since all land has been made available there was no reason to delay the work now,” added Dahiya who stated that his plea of granting additional six months would not be considered as the work was already running behind schedule.

Jain directed the NHAI officials to ensure quality work and ensure patchwork on the potholed road by the month end. He also asked them to install signages on the accident-prone areas and other designated locations as per safety norms.