63 bighas identified for Transport Nagar in Baddi

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, January 13

The state’s industrial hub of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN), housing Asia’s largest truck union, may soon get a dedicated Transport Nagar, as a stretch of 63 bighas has been identified for this purpose at Katha village.

The land which belonged to the Industries Department has been made available to the Transport Department to facilitate setting up of this facility for truckers.

A no objection certificate (NoC) has also been given by the Industries Department to the Transport Department to ensure that no hassles pertaining to land were faced by the parent department in setting up this transport nagar.

With nearly 9,000 trucks operating in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh, the provision of adequate parking has been a repeated demand of truckers.

Though some parking lots are there in various parts of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh such as Jharmajri, Chokiwala and Sandholi, they are unable to cater to the entire fleet of trucks thereby necessitating the need to set up a bigger facility for truckers.

The haphazard parking of trucks all over the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh, especially on the national highways, has not only become a traffic hazard, but has also lead to decongestion of roads, which already face a heavy influx of traffic throughout the day.

Lalit Jain, Nalagarh SDM-cum-Chief Executive Officer of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh Development Authority, who played a key role in facilitating the identification of this land, said they were also trying to improve the existing parking lots.

He said as many as Rs 25 lakh would be spent on the Jharmajri-based parking, where additional facilities such as toilets would be constructed by incurring Rs 15 lakh.

While the government was exploring the possibility of roping in private partnership to construct the transport nagar on public private partnership mode, facilities such as driving school to train drivers, vehicle testing facilities were some of the new features which were likely to be included in the new proposal confided Jain.

A proposal to construct a transport nagar through a Centrally funded scheme had been mooted earlier also, but it was not approved, following which a new proposal was being mooted.