Deadly 'S' curve on Airport Road in Mohali set to be straightened

Sanjay Bumbroo

Mohali, March 31

A deadly curve on Airport Road near Sector 70 is going to be straightened. Gurdwara Mata Sunder Kaur, which is managed by Budha Dal, has agreed to relocate, paving the way for straightening of the stretch by the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA).

According to information, the gurdwara management has agreed to relocate to another piece of land to be provided by GMADA, allowing the development authority to begin work to straighten out the killer stretch falling on the road separating Sectors 70 and 77, near the Sohana gurdwara light point.

The curve, which is known as a “black spot”, has seen 100 accidents since it was constructed in 2009, leading to 12 fatalities. Accidents here form a major chunk of the overall mishaps on 18-km Airport Road, according to the Mohali police.

Pertinently, a portion of land was not released by the gurdwara, forcing the government to make an “S” curve at the time of the construction of Airport Road.

A senior GMADA official said they had now received the consent of the gurdwara authority and the shrine would be relocated. He said a project report would be prepared for straightening the road in the next two weeks, following which an estimate would be prepared and tenders floated. They were hopeful of completing the project in the next three months, he said.

After former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi had directed GMADA to find a solution to the deadly curve, the authority had approved an alternative site for the gurdwara in January. Channi had also approached Baba Balbir Singh, the chief of Budha Dal that runs the gurdwara, to reach a consensus.

Several organisations, along with area councillor Sukhdev Singh Patwari, had written letters to GMADA, suggesting it to allot land to the gurdwara authorities somewhere else. Patwari had even laid out a design for straightening out the road.

In January last year, Gurjot Singh Kaler, the then SP, Traffic, Mohali, had prepared a report that crash barriers installed by GMADA had broken and illegal cuts had been created by commuters to take a U-turn, risking lives. He had inspected the spot after a woman and her teen daughter were killed as a sand-laden tipper hit their two-wheeler at this blind curve. He had further suggested some measures, including installation of mirrors, reflectors and construction of speed breakers, to make the curve safer. The police official had submitted his findings to the GMADA chief engineer. Following this, the police had installed barricades and rumble strips on the road.

In April 2019, Navdeep Asija, Punjab traffic adviser, after conducting a three-dimensional safety audit using drones, had revealed major flaws in the design of Airport Road and stated in the report that it was not pedestrian and cyclist-friendly.